Synergy in Chaos
by Lord Tyrannus
Summary: The ancient machines known as the Reapers are about to threaten not just one galaxy, but two. Now, they both must unite in order to survive and defeat this synthetic menace once and for all.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The characters, settings, vehicles, technology, etc. belonging to Mass Effect and Star Wars are the exclusive property of BioWare and Lucasfilm, respectively. I am affiliated with neither and am not making any personal profit from this story.**

**In other words, I own nothing, and I'm only writing this for fun.**

**This story is rated M for strong language, violence, and minor sexual content to be found in later chapters. The beginning of this story takes place between **_**The Empire Strikes Back **_**and **_**Return of the Jedi**_** in the Star Wars timeline, and just before **_**Mass Effect 3**_** in the Mass Effect timeline.**

**Thoughts and ideas for improvement are greatly appreciated.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Darth Vader gazed out the window on the bridge of the _Executor_, staring out into the eerie blackness of space. Occupying said space were untold thousands of stars, spread out amongst a black background of nothingness. To the casual observer it would seem empty, but those stars represented thousands of worlds, many of which had life forms, their presence sending ripples through the Force which Vader could sense in his meditated state. He often found himself observing the space outside the viewport of his ship, simply attuned to the ebb and flow of the Force around him. It helped to soothe him, to keep him relaxed, which he needed nowadays. With the Rebel Alliance continuing to harass Imperials forces in the Outer Rim and his son somewhere among them, he needed to check his sanity every now and again. Otherwise, he might slip up, and the Emperor would not tolerate that.

At the moment, among the vast number of stars in the sky, Vader was aware of another object contrasting with the blackness of space around it. From the view of the _Executor_'s bridge, it looked relatively small. In actuality, however, it was massive. The object was in the shape of a colossal torus, several kilometers thick and nearly a hundred in diameter. The outside of the ring was smooth metal, the color of bronze, gleaming in the light of the nearby star. The ships that surrounded the structure were dwarfed by its huge size.

The object in question had been discovered two weeks before by an Imperial freighter en route to Shola. A navigation error on the part of the pilot led to them being sent approximately 1,000 light-years south of where they were supposed to go. Coincidentally, the freighter stumbled upon the massive torus. The discovery was immediately reported to Imperial authorities, and the Emperor sent his best scientists to determine the origin and function of the device. The Emperor sent Vader, along with the _Executor_, to personally oversee the scientists' progress.

Vader earnestly wished to be elsewhere. He had other things to do besides stand around while Palpatine's scientists tried to figure out what that strange artifact was for. He would much rather be putting effort into hunting down the Rebel fleet than in the position he was currently. Why the Emperor deemed it so important for him to be present he could not guess, and he didn't care. Right now, his only alleviation was to stand at the bridge, looking out at the stars.

His meditation was interrupted as he sensed a presence approaching him from behind. He could hear footsteps against the metal flooring of the bridge as the figure grew closer.

"Lord Vader," he said.

"Yes, Piett, what is it?" Vader asked, not turning around but knowing it was his admiral, both from the sound of his voice and his presence in the Force.

"Our science teams have managed to gather some information concerning the device. I thought it best to present the findings to you personally."

"Go on," Vader said, his form unmoving.

"Well, the scientists have had some trouble dating it, but based on their early findings, they estimate that the device was constructed at least 120,000 years ago. They currently hypothesize that the device was constructed by the Celestials."

Upon hearing the age, Vader wasn't surprised at the identity of the builders of the ring. Long before galactic civilization first arose, the Celestials, or the Architects as they were sometimes known, controlled the galaxy. This ancient civilization held enormous technological knowledge, and were known for their massive construction projects that lasted for eons after their disappearance. They were said to be capable of creating and moving entire star systems, and some even thought that the very balance of the Force itself was guided by these mysterious beings. Thus, it was no shock to Vader that they were most likely responsible for building the structure.

"Does the team currently have any idea as to the nature of the device?" Vader inquired. "Why it was constructed?"

"Our ships' scanners have analyzed the architecture of the ring," Piett explained. "It is remarkably complex, and while the scientists have a theory, it is still unproven and it will take time for them to analyze the remaining data in order to confirm-"

"Get to the point, Admiral," lashed Vader. Piett could tell from the tone of his synthesized voice that the Sith was growing impatient.

"Yes my Lord," said Piett, somewhat nervous. "The interior of the ring is lined with gravitic polarization beams. The configuration suggests that the function is to create a hyperspace wormhole."

"A wormhole?"

"Yes, a wormhole that could potentially be used for transportation from one point to another."

"Where does it lead?"

"We don't know. The scientists are still analyzing the data in order to ascertain a possible end point for this wormhole. They assume that the destination is extremely far away or very isolated, unable to be reached with standard hyperspace travel. Otherwise, there would be no point in building this device to reach said destination."

"I see."

For a moment the bridge was silent as Vader mulled over this information. Nothing could be heard except the bustling activity of Imperial officers around the bridge and Vader's mechanical breathing. Piett stayed quiet. He knew better than to rush the Dark Lord.

"So we have no idea what we would find on the other side of that wormhole?" Vader finally asked.

"No, my Lord," Piett answered. "I have sent the early findings to the Emperor over encrypted channels. We still know very little about this structure, but we certainly don't want the Rebels exploiting it somehow."

"Good. The bridge is yours, Admiral. I must speak with the Emperor."

"Yes, Lord Vader."

And with that, Vader turned away from the viewport and walked out of the bridge, his dark cape flowing in his wake.

* * *

Not long after, Vader was in his meditation chamber, which also housed the holographic display he used to communicate with Emperor Palpatine. Stepping onto the raised circular platform, he knelt down as a connection was made with Coruscant. Sure enough, within a few seconds, the blue holographic image of Darth Sidious appeared before him, magnified several times so that it towered over Vader. This was obviously a tactic to make himself look intimidating to his subordinates, including Vader. At this point, it didn't faze the Sith apprentice, but he dealt with it all the same.

"Lord Vader," the Emperor said. "I was hoping you would contact me before I had to send a transmission myself. Admiral Piett sent me the preliminary findings of the science team examining the device we recently discovered. I assume you are aware of this?"

"Yes, my master," Vader answered. "Apparently the device was constructed by the Celestials millennia ago, and our scientists believe it is meant to create a hyperspace wormhole to an as-of-yet unknown location."

"I read the findings, Lord Vader. I am well aware of this; there is no need to remind me."

"Yes master."

In his mind, Vader silently hated the figure looming over him. While he had admired Palpatine as a mentor during his upbringing as a Jedi, after he became his Sith apprentice, he eventually grew to despise the man, and loathed the fact that he was now trapped in servitude to his master. He longed for the day when he could finally overthrow Sidious and gain control of the Empire himself. At the moment, however, that was impossible. Due to his injuries from Mustafar, he could not stand against the Emperor alone, and his son would not join him, at least not right now. For the moment, Vader had to tolerate his position in subservience to the man who ultimately caused his downfall.

"Curious," the Emperor mused, "how the Celestials would go to all the trouble to build such a massive device. Causes one to wonder where this gateway might lead."

"The destination must have been important for them to build this device for the sole purpose of reaching it."

"Yes. Important indeed." With that, a deep crease fell on the Emperor's forehead as he drifted deep into thought. Vader couldn't presume to know what he was thinking at the moment. Often times, he couldn't tell what plans his master was concocting until they came into fruition. Darth Sidious was patient and calculating, and a very hard man to predict. Vader stopped trying to do so a long time ago.

"Perhaps extremely valuable," Palpatine spoke softly, breaking the silence.

"What are you suggesting?" Vader inquired.

"I think that it should be clear what I am suggesting, my apprentice. Here we have an ancient artifact constructed by the precursors to galactic civilization. Said artifact is meant to create a portal leading to somewhere that was obviously of great enough significance as to build a portal leading to it."

"You want to send a ship through the wormhole?"

"Yes. There is no telling what lies on the other side, but it could be worthwhile. Lord Vader, tell the scientists to speed up their work in analyzing the device's infrastructure as to determine how to use it. Once it is functional, send a ship through the wormhole. Find whatever lies on the other side and report it back to me as soon as possible."

"Master, I would assume there would be significant risks associated with operating a wormhole generator of that age, and which we know so little about."

"Then make sure the scientists have studied the device thoroughly before using it." The Emperor was adamant. "I want whatever is through that portal. Anything that can serve as an advantage for the Empire is highly valued. Are we clear, Lord Vader?"

"Yes master. I will tell our experts to double their efforts at once."

"Good. See to it then. We will discuss this later." The hologram of the Sith Lord then fizzled and blinked out of existence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks to those that reviewed. It's nice to see that my first real foray into fanfiction is off to a good start. **

**MetalKing1417, as for the whole "Empire wiping out the Reapers" idea, that's not where I was planning on going. Of course, if you want to go with your own suggestion, go right ahead. This part of the site needs more fics. **

**Enough of my rambling, let's get on with the story. Once again, reviews are appreciated.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

After a couple of days, the Imperial scientists were able to confirm that the mysterious artifact was, in fact, a wormhole generator, and they were also able to locate a control room in the ring that would allow them to activate the wormhole. The scientists, however, were unable to figure out the endpoint from the data that was available. This didn't concern Vader. The Emperor had ordered him to find out what was on the other side, and he would do so. Captain Pluma of the _Avenger _had volunteered his ship to be the one to go through, and Vader had allowed his request. All that was left was for the device to be activated and for the _Avenger _to make its way through to the other side.

Vader once again stood at the bridge of the _Executor_, looking outside and staring at the massive artifact in front of him. The _Avenger_ was not far away, ready to make the trip through the wormhole once it opened. The Star Destroyer's job was simple: go through to the other side, use star charts to figure out their location, use the ship's scanners to survey the area, collect anything of value in the immediate vicinity, then go back through the wormhole and report their findings to Lord Vader. A small part of Death Squadron would remain behind to wait for the _Avenger_'s return and ensure that no one else would try to make their way through.

Admiral Piett approached Vader as he was looking out the viewport. "Lord Vader," he said, "our men are in the control room and are prepared to activate the wormhole generator at your command."

Lord Vader turned around to face Piett at his words. "Is the crew of the _Avenger_ prepared to make the jump?" he asked.

"Yes, my Lord. All personnel are accounted for and the vessel is stocked with enough supplies to last for months if necessary. Hopefully we won't have to wait that long for a return, but best to be safe."

"Very good, Admiral. Tell the men in the control room to activate the wormhole. The _Avenger_ can then pass through."

"Yes Vader." Piett then raised his hand to his ear and spoke into the comms. "This is Admiral Piett speaking. Lord Vader has given the go-ahead. Activate the device. _Avenger_, once it is active, you may proceed when ready."

About half a minute passed and nothing happened. The device simply hung in space, with no sign of any activity. Then, on the interior of the ring, a series of brilliant blue lights appeared, an indicator of the gravitic beams powering up. The lights continued to grow brighter and brighter until their intensity rivaled that of the star nearby. The crew had never seen anything like this before, and all they could do was stand and watch astonished at what was occurring right in front of them. All of a sudden, the beams fired into the center of the empty space the ring surrounded, colliding in the center with each other. The intensity of the light was so great, many on the bridge brought their arms over their eyes to shield themselves from the sheer brilliance of the reaction. Vader stood there unflinching, the lenses in his helmet automatically compensating to keep the light from blinding him.

Suddenly, a powerful flash of light filled the bridge. For a moment, nobody was able to see. Then the light faded, and some of the officers were picking themselves up off of the floor. Outside the window, the bright flash of light was replaced with a large, swirling portal. The wormhole spun around in the ring's interior, its dark turquoise spirals mesmerizing the bridge crew.

"_Avenger_, you may proceed through the wormhole," Piett instructed. Immediately, the Star Destroyer moved forward towards the portal. Everyone on the bridge held their breath as the ship grew closer. Then, as the _Avenger_ reached the gateway, the ship appeared to blur before rapidly accelerating through the wormhole, disappearing behind the spinning entity.

"They're clear," Piett stated.

"Very good," Vader responded. "Have our ships secure the area. I'll be in my chamber."

"As you wish, Lord Vader."

The Sith then turned around and walked from the bridge, leaving the large artifact and its gateway behind him.

* * *

_36 hours later…_

At an unknown location far from the known galaxy, a large artifact - identical to the one discovered by the Empire - hung in space. Suddenly, it activated, beams colliding in the center, giving off a huge amount of light. With a flash, it ended, and a portal was left behind. The _Avenger_ emerged through the portal, tiny compared to the massive superstructure, a foreign ship in the middle of a great unknown.

Captain Morek Pluma stood at the bridge of the _Avenger_, a stoic expression on his aged face. He was the ship's newest captain, a position he accepted somewhat half-heartedly. He had heard how Vader had throttled the previous captain – Lorth Needa – to death over his failure to capture the Rebel freighter known as the _Millennium Falcon_. He had no intentions of sharing the fate of the previous commander of the vessel. Luckily, his job entailed nothing that posed any significant challenge; he simply needed to explore the area and find anything the Empire could use.

"Commander Nemet," he ordered to the logistics officer down in the left crew pit, "cross reference the arrangement of these stars with data from our navigational charts. Find out where we are."

"Yes sir," the young officer replied before turning his attention back to the terminal. Several minutes passed by before he was finished. The bridge was practically silent the entire time.

"Sir," he finally spoke, "the constellations of stars surrounding us do not match up with any of our star charts."

"That can't be right," Pluma asserted. "Check again."

"I already did, sir. Three times. The stellar arrangements do not match with the locations of any known part of the galaxy."

"Are you implying what I think you are?" the captain responded incredulously.

"Yes. It appears that we've left our own galaxy."

"Are you certain?"

"I'm positive, sir."

"Unbelievable," Pluma muttered to no one in particular. He could barely believe what his subordinate was saying. He knew that the wormhole had to lead to somewhere isolated, but the idea that it would catapult them millions of light-years into a completely different galaxy was absolutely incredible. Never in his many years of service to the Empire would he have imagined something like this to be possible. At the moment, however, their location was irrelevant. He had a job to do.

"Scan the area," he ordered after he gathered his bearings. "See what's here." There was silence on the bridge for a couple of minutes as the ship's sensors scanned the immediate vicinity.

"Sir," Nemet said, "our scans are picking up something. It appears to be some sort of ship."

"A ship?" Pluma inquired. "What kind of ship?"

"It looks like a small cruiser of some kind. Unknown class."

"Has it detected us?" Pluma wasn't too keen on being attacked by an unknown enemy just as they had arrived.

"No sir, the ship appears to be disabled. Our scans show no life signs aboard, and most of the systems appear to be offline."

"Good. I'd hate to have this vessel engage an unknown enemy so soon after we arrived in this galaxy. It would be unfortunate… for them, of course."

"Scans show no other craft in the vicinity, active or otherwise."

"Good." Pluma was inwardly smiling at his fortune. He hadn't been in this new galaxy for half an hour, and already he'd found something valuable. That ship would obviously have onboard computers, and extracting data from them could result in gaining some useful information about this new galaxy; information which the Empire could use for its own advantage. The captain spoke into his comm unit. "Commander Rex, assemble a squad in the hangar. I have a task for you."

* * *

A _Sentinel_-class shuttle emerged from the underbelly of the _Avenger_, its wings unfolding before the craft's boosters activated and sped the shuttle towards the unknown ship. Inside the crew compartment of the shuttle was a squad of twenty stormtroopers and a small team of seven engineers. One trooper sitting among the rest stood out. He wore a kama and a blue pauldron over his left shoulder. His helmet had blue lines surrounding its eyepieces and a line going straight down from the eyes to the bottom of the helmet. Above the eyepieces were a pair of blue _jaig _eyes. The helmet was also equipped with a rangefinder which was raised above the right side of trooper's head. The trooper's armor also had blue lines across its chestpiece and arms.

Rex had achieved the rank of battalion commander not long after the Clone Wars ended. The promotion was something the clone had mixed feelings about. While he was happy that he had proven to be experienced enough to warrant an increase in rank, the responsibilities he had taken on since the rise of the New Order were unsettling to him. As a high-ranking member of the 501st Legion, under the direct command of Darth Vader, he had partaken in a number of missions of questionable ethical merits; many of these assignments involved forced regime changes in the governments of rebellious planets and the hunting down of surviving Jedi.

Rex had never agreed with Palpatine's initiation of Order 66, which declared the Jedi enemies of the state, and thus required by all soldiers to shoot on sight. He wasn't on Coruscant during the attack on the Jedi Temple – he was with Torrent Company on a mission to destroy a CIS droid factory on Taral V – but if he had been, he probably would have left the army right then and there. He'd fought alongside several Jedi during the Clone Wars, and made friends with a handful of them. He knew that they were completely devoted to protecting the Republic and stopping the Separatists. The idea that they would go against their ideals of freedom and try to take over struck him as ludicrous. However, Rex knew what the consequences would be if he tried to desert once the Empire had officially replaced the Republic, and they didn't exactly include paid retirement on a private garden world. Therefore, he stayed with the army, leading his own battalion ever since.

"Commander," the pilot radioed from the cockpit.

"Yes pilot, go ahead," Rex responded.

"Scanners show that the majority of systems on the vessel have been disabled, including gravity and life support. You're going to have to use sealed enviro-suits and move around the ship with magnetic boots."

"Any idea what happened to this vessel, lieutenant?"

"Negative sir, but whatever happened, she's been drifting for a long time. I'm not sure if you'll be able to extract anything from the onboard computers."

"Well, we've got orders from the captain, so we need to go in and make sure. Any sign of automated defenses?"

"There shouldn't be any active, but if there are, that's why you and your boys are here."

"Yeah, the engineers would have a hard time doing their jobs with their guts pumped with plasma from a turret."

"I could see how that might complicate things. We're approaching the ship now. I'll dock the shuttle in one of the open hangars."

"Copy that lieutenant."

With that, there was silence in the shuttle for the next few minutes as the shuttle neared the mysterious ship. The vessel wasn't as big as a Star Destroyer, but its design looked intimidating nonetheless. It possessed what looked like a pair of wings, one on each side pointing downward, near the back of the ship by the engines, with an elongated hull stretched forward. The outer hull's appearance resembled plates stacked on top of each other. Rex had never seen any ship design resembling it before.

"What do you think is on that ship, Commander?" asked Major Varan, Rex's second-in-command who was sitting to his right.

"I haven't got the slightest clue, major," Rex replied. "Looks like we're about to find out."

The shuttle decelerated as it approached a hangar bay on the alien vessel. An audible thump was felt in the cabin as the shuttle attached itself to the floor of the bay with magnetic clamps. Rex and the other stormtroopers stood up and checked their weapons.

"Alright men, make sure your suits are sealed and check your oxygen supply," Rex ordered to his squad. "We don't want to run out of air in there. Our objective is clear: go in, find the computers on the bridge, have the engineers extract any data they can, then head back. Any questions?" There was silence. "Good. Let's head out."

* * *

**Edit 4/28: Changed the description of Rex's armor (mostly the helmet) to include more detail**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The ramp of the shuttle slowly lowered down onto the floor of the hangar bay. Shortly thereafter, Rex, his squad of stormtroopers, and the engineers walked out of the shuttle. The engineers were wearing sealed enviro-suits with helmets on their heads, and the stormtroopers had tanks on their backs that contained an ample supply of oxygen. Once everyone was assembled, Rex stood among them and pulled out a hologram of the ship.

"Our scanners have given us detailed information about the inside of the ship," Rex spoke to everyone present. "We're here, in the hangar bay." Rex then pointed out the hangar bay on the ship, which was close to the ship's engines. "The bridge should be right around here." Rex pointed out the location of the bridge. "We need to make our way there so the engineers can do their job. Along the way we'll search any places of particular interest and gather whatever intel we can. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir," replied the rest of the squad in unison.

"Excellent. We'll split into several teams. I'll take a team of seven troopers through this passageway with three of the engineers." Rex traced his finger along one of the passageways leading to the bridge. "Varan, you'll take seven more troopers with the other four engineers along this passage." He pointed out another pathway through the ship leading to the bridge.

"Understood," the major said curtly.

"The other four troopers will remain here with the pilot and guard the shuttle. Split into your teams, then we'll move out."

About a minute later, all the troopers were split into their respective groups, with Rex and Varan both in charge of escorting the engineers to the bridge. Rex led his team towards one of the exits to the hangar, with Varan leading his team to another exit not far away. As the major passed through the doorway with his troopers in tow, Rex pulled out his dual SE-14r blaster pistols from the magnetic clamps on his waist. "Three of you with me in the front, the rest of you watch our six," Rex instructed. "Keep the engineers in the middle. Are we clear?" The soldiers all nodded their heads. "Alright, let's move." Rex then walked through the doorway and into the hallway leading to the bridge, with the rest of his troopers close by.

* * *

Varan's team slowly moved their way down the metal hallway leading to the bridge of the ship. They had to watch their feet carefully, as there was no gravity and their magnetic boots were the only things keeping them connected to the floor. Varan remained vigilant, his E-11 blaster rifle pointed down his path at all times. He had no idea what was on the ship, but he wasn't taking any chances. The training he'd received on Kamino all those years ago told him to be ready for anything.

As they rounded out the corner, Varan noticed a doorway on the right that was closed. "Dash, see what's behind that door," he ordered.

"Yes sir," the private replied. He carefully made his way to a control panel on the side of the door. Holstering his blaster, he immediately set to work trying to activate the door. While he wasn't quite as experienced as the engineers the team brought with them, he had enough technical expertise to work the controls. The other troopers guarded him as he did so. After about a minute of fiddling with the controls, the door opened and Dash made his way inside, his comrades continuing to guard the door.

"Major," the private called out, "come look at this."

Varan went inside the room to where Dash stood. "What is it, private?" he inquired.

"Look at all this." Dash then pointed his arm throughout the room. On the walls was a wide assortment of various types of weapons. There were weapons resembling assault rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, and heavy weapons everywhere.

"Looks like we've found the ship's armory," Varan spoke.

"Get a load of all these guns," Dash said as he approached one of the weapon racks.

"Private, be careful! You don't know anything about these weapons."

"Relax major, I know how to handle a gun. What am I, a Jawa?"

"Just don't fire anything in here. We don't need to haul your ass back to the _Avenger_ in critical."

"Go ahead, keep making jokes, but I know what I'm doing." That having been said, Dash reached out to grab one of the guns on the rack, taking care not to touch anything resembling a trigger. Pulling it from its slot in the wall, he held the gun in front of the major for him to look at. "Looks like some sort of rifle. Can't tell if it's energy based or a slugthrower."

"We'll take it back to the ship and have a look at it. Give me that thing and go grab some of the other weapons."

"Yes sir." With those words, Dash made a move to toss the gun over to the major. However, there being no gravity, the gun drifted over Varan's head as the private threw it, heading towards the ceiling. "Damn."

"You know you're getting that, right?"

"Yes sir, sorry sir." The private walked past the major to the wall behind him, trying hard not to look at him, then used his magnetic boots to climb the wall to get to the gun. Varan let out a long, exasperated sigh.

"Shinies."

* * *

In another part of the ship, Rex stood outside a door with his troopers and engineers while one of his men worked a control panel to open the door. They hadn't made it to the bridge yet, but they were examining all the rooms on the way there to see what they could find. Rex raised his hand to the side of his head as his comm went off.

"Commander," Varan reported into the comlink. "We've located an armory on our way to the bridge. We're rounding up some of the weapons for closer examination once we get back to the _Avenger_."

"Copy that major," Rex responded. "We're outside a door. I'm having one of the engineers try to get it open so we can take a look at what's in the room behind it."

"Acknowledged. We'll rendezvous with your team at the bridge once we're done here."

"Copy Varan. Rex out." As Rex lowered his hand to his side, the door behind him opened. "Alright, let's see what we've got here." He went with a few of his men into the room. Inside said room were several dozen pods lined up on the walls. They all seemed big enough to hold a large man.

"Stasis pods," Rex observed. "Looks like the crew tried to keep themselves alive a little longer when their ship was disabled."

"Guess it didn't work," one of the troopers added. "Scanners didn't pick up any life forms. These pods must have died, and the crew along with it."

"Not a good way to go. Someone open one of the pods. I want to take a look at what's in there."

At the commander's orders, an engineer slowly approached one of the stasis pods. After he pushed a series of buttons on the side of the pod, the canopy opened, and a body floated out of the pod towards the ceiling. A couple of stormtroopers quickly grabbed the body to keep it from floating away. Rex stepped forward and got a good look at the alien before him. It was a tall creature, around two meters tall, and was mostly encased in armor. Its body shape was bipedal, with two arms, two legs, and a head. Its arms ended in hands with two fingers and opposable thumbs. Its legs bowed backward and ended in two-toed, clawed feet. There was some sort of hood surrounding the creature's neck. The head was scaly, indicating that the alien was reptilian. It had two eyes and a flat nose. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth and there was a pair of mandibles surrounding it. A crest of horns adorned the top of its head and poked out the back.

"What the hell kind of alien is this?" asked one of the stormtroopers holding the creature.

"I've got no idea," answered Rex. "One of you can take it back to the shuttle. We'll have some scientists examine it for good measure."

"Will do, sir."

"The rest of you come on. Let's meet up with the major at the bridge."

* * *

Rex and the rest of his team made their way to the door to the bridge to find Varan and his squad already there. Several of the troopers were carrying various alien weapons.

"I take it these are the weapons from that armory you found?" Rex asked.

"Yeah, we helped ourselves to a few guns," Varan answered. "Imperial Command is going to want to look at these."

"Come on, let's get this door open."

One of the engineers went over to the control panel on the side of the door while everyone else watched. After about half a minute, the engineer spoke up.

"Controls are fried, sir," he told the commander. "Can't get in."

"Looks like we're doing this the hard way," Rex remarked. "Cut this door open."

Following Rex's orders, the engineers brought out the blowtorches that they brought with them. The stormtroopers gave them plenty of room as they proceeded to cut a hole in the door. Within a few minutes, a man-sized hole was formed in the door, with one of the engineers kicking away the piece of metal they had cut out.

"Everybody in," Rex commanded. He brought out his twin pistols and was the first one to walk through the hole. He made a good once-over on the layout of the bridge. In the middle of the room was a large, circular holographic display, which was currently inactive. Several terminals were located around the display, and there was a large platform raised above it, presumably where the captain would order his subordinates from. On the sides of the room were several control panels with fixed chairs in front of them where the crewmen would sit and monitor the status of the ship and their surroundings. On the far side of the room was a large viewport that gave a view of the space outside. Rex could make out the large Celestial gateway in the distance.

He hadn't been inside the bridge for five seconds before a turret on the ceiling turned to face him. Rex registered its presence just half a second before it sent a hail of accelerated projectiles impacting against his shields. As a commander, Rex was authorized to use specialized equipment, and had a shield generator built into his armor. If he didn't have it, he would be dead at that moment. The shields, however, wouldn't be able to hold out for long. Thinking on his feet, almost immediately as the bullets hit, he pushed himself off the floor and to the side, causing him to float at high speed towards the starboard side of the room. In a split-second, Rex raised his blasters and sent a barrage of blaster bolts at the turret, destroying it. Almost as soon as that turret was disabled, however, another turret activated and pointed right at the commander. Before it could fire, a trio of red bolts impacted on the turret, destroying it as well. Rex turned to see Varan pointing his rifle at the now-destroyed turret, having saved his commander's life.

"Thanks for the assist, Varan," Rex said gratefully as he reached the edge of the room.

"Think nothing of it, Rex," Varan replied. "You would have done the same if it'd been my ass on the line."

"You mean I _have_ done the same thing when it was your ass on the line," Rex shot back as his feet made contact with the floor once again. "You don't remember what happened with that Akul on Shili?"

Varan chuckled. "You're never going to let me live that one down, are you commander?"

"Not until you're dead."

The rest of the stormtroopers, followed by the engineers, soon made their way through the hole into the bridge. Once he was through, Dash went straight up to the commander.

"You alright sir?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, private," Rex responded. "The bullets didn't penetrate my shields. No damage."

"Good to hear."

"Alright men," Rex ordered, pointing at the engineers. "Get into these consoles. Extract all available intel from their onboard databases."

"Yes sir," one of the engineers responded. "Right away."

"And while you're at it, see if you can turn on the gravity. It's getting a little disorienting walking around with mag boots in zero-g."

"Yes sir."

The engineers then each placed themselves at one of the terminals surrounding the holographic display. Once there, they vigorously began pushing buttons.

"Sir," one of the engineers called out. "The data is in an unknown language. I can't decipher it, but there seems to be some sort of linguistics program embedded here. I'm translating the data now."

"Once it's translated, copy the data onto a holodisk." Rex replied. "Same goes for the rest of you," he added, speaking to the other engineers.

"Turning on gravity, sir," said another one of the engineers. Sure enough, as soon as those words were spoken, Rex felt the pull of gravity pulling him to the floor. After a brief moment of vertigo, he straightened himself out.

"Ah, that's better," he exclaimed. "Okay men, let's finish up here, then head back to the ship."

* * *

Captain Pluma stood on the bridge of the _Avenger_, silent, stoic, and waiting for news. It had been a couple of hours since he'd sent Rex onboard the foreign ship to gather intel, and he hadn't heard back from him yet. Nevertheless, the captain was patient. Rex was a very capable soldier, and this was a simple task. He'd hear back from him eventually.

Almost as if on cue with his thoughts, Pluma heard a transmission coming from his comlink. "Captain, this is Rex. We've managed to extract a healthy heap of data from the bridge computers, as well as some weaponry and a specimen for study."

"Excellent work commander," Pluma responded. "What is your current status?"

"We're in the shuttle and are heading back to the _Avenger_ now, sir."

"Good. We'll head back through the portal once you're aboard. Lord Vader will want word of this as soon as possible."

"Understood captain. Rex out."

"Be prepared to make the jump back through the portal as soon as Rex's shuttle lands in the hangar," Pluma ordered to the bridge crew.

"Acknowledged captain," replied Nemet.

Soon, the shuttle landed in the hangar bay of the _Avenger_, with it a treasure trove of intel, weapons, and an actual alien from the foreign galaxy. All of this valuable material would be put to good use by the Empire. Minutes later, the Star Destroyer turned back towards the gateway that would lead back to their galaxy. It slowly approached the portal before the tip of the bow touched the wormhole, at which point the whole ship blurred, then accelerated through the spiraling portal in the blink of an eye, leaving the newly discovered galaxy behind.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Deep within the confines of the _Executor_, Darth Vader was meditating in his hyperbaric chamber. His helmet and facemask removed and suspended above him, he sat with his eyes closed, motionless, focusing deeply on his hatred, channeling the Dark Side through his body. For the past three days, he had spent much of his time here, allocating most of the regular bridge duties to Admiral Piett when he himself wasn't present. Along with gazing out into the stars outside the bridge viewport, this was one of the Sith Lord's preferred ways of keeping himself calm and focused. With practically all of his time spent trapped inside his helmet, he desperately needed these occasions when his face could be exposed to open air, or at least the oxygenated, pressurized air inside his meditation chamber. Without his specialized life support unit to give him this, he would have developed claustrophobia a long time ago.

Vader grew to relish these moments when he could, in some small way, be free from the confines of his armor, which at times felt like a prison. There were occasions when he appreciated the intimidating effect it had on his enemies and subordinates, but mostly it served as a constant reminder of his grievous injuries and the fact that he could never achieve his full potential because of them. Then there were other problems, such as the constant itching, restriction of his movement in combat, and the fact that the loud, incessant breathing noise from his respirator made it almost impossible for him to sleep. There were times when Vader wondered whether Palpatine had designed the armor for the sole purpose of limiting him, to make it so that he could never be strong enough to overthrow his master. Needless to say, he kept such thoughts to himself.

As Vader sat there in his chamber, deeply in tune with the Force, he began to see visions; memories of the past, which seemed to torture the Sith's mind any time he made an attempt to find peace. There were times when he tried to ignore it, but they continued to haunt him nonetheless.

"_The Force is strong with you._ _A powerful Sith you will become."_

Vader recognized those words. Those were the words Sidious had spoken to him when he agreed to be the dark lord's apprentice. He had been promised great power, only to have it ripped away from him, leaving him trapped in his infernal suit in the process, unable to achieve his full potential in the Force. The power he did gain, moreover, was still not enough to save the one he loved; the one he had sacrificed his identity, body, and soul to protect.

_A young boy slowly came up from behind one of the seats in the Jedi Council chamber. Scared and nervous, he walked up to Anakin. "Master Skywalker," he said, his face and voice betraying fear and confusion at what was happening. "There are too many of them. What are we going to do?"_

A youngling from the Jedi Temple. Vader came across this boy as well as several other younglings when he led the 501st Legion in an assault on the temple to slaughter the Jedi inside. The small child had come up to him, looking for protection and some small ray of hope to guide him and his friends out of the grim situation they were in. In response, Vader had killed them all. He did exactly what Sidious instructed; he did not hesitate, and he did not show mercy. That did not stop the small twinge of regret he felt at the time as he wondered whether it was all worth it.

_He was lying down at the bottom of a lava bank, looking up at the man in front of him with a deep, burning hatred. "I HATE YOU!" he screamed. The man simply stood there, a look of sadness in his eyes. _

"_You were my brother, Anakin!" he cried back. "I loved you!"_

The words of his former mentor and friend stuck out at Vader like a sore thumb. Obi-Wan Kenobi said those words just after cutting off his former apprentice's limbs and leaving him helpless next to a river of molten lava on Mustafar. As Vader was consumed in flames, he watched as the man he once thought a brother walked away, leaving him to die. The man's parting words meant nothing to Vader, whose feelings of brotherhood and friendship towards the Jedi Master had been replaced with a deep, unrelenting hatred that would remain with him for years.

"_Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father," he called out to his son, who was desperately trying to stay away from him, pushing himself further along the extension to the catwalk._

"_He told me enough!" Luke yelled, anger spilling over into his tone. "He told me you killed him!"_

"_No. _I _am your father."_

_At those words, it was impossible for Vader not to notice as a look of pure shock and horror was etched across his son's face. "No, no that's not true! That's impossible!"_

This particular memory was fresh in Vader's mind, having occurred only a few months ago. He had managed to lure his son to Cloud City on Bespin by taking his comrades aboard the _Millennium Falcon_ – which included both Princess Leia and Han Solo, the latter of whom he had given to Boba Fett – as hostages. They had fought from the carbonite freezing chamber all the way to the catwalks over the air shaft, where he ended their lightsaber duel by slicing off Luke's right hand. It was then that he revealed himself to be Luke's father, and offered to complete his training so that they could overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy together as father and son.

Things did not go as well as the Sith had hoped. Instead of joining him, Luke opted to fall off of the catwalk extension and into the shaft. That course of action surprised Vader, who was dismayed by the fact that rather than stand at his side, his son would rather fall down to his death. Luke had survived, of course, and was soon after rescued by his companions in the _Falcon_. Despite his men having previously sabotaged its hyperdrive, the ship escaped. Vader had not seen his son since.

His recollection of those events was interrupted as another vision intruded his mind: one that haunted him more than any of the others.

_A young pregnant woman stood before him on a landing platform. Her hands were wrapped around her throat, and Vader's arm was stretched out as he choked her with the Force. The look on her face revealed a mix of shock and extreme sadness._

"_Anakin, please," she pleaded, barely managing a whisper as the invisible fingers slowly tightened around her windpipe…_

"Lord Vader," a voice said over the comm, breaking Vader out of his trance as his eyes snapped open. For once he was glad to be broken out of his meditation.

"This is Piett," the voice continued. "I need to speak with you for a moment."

As the Admiral spoke, Vader pushed a button on his chair, causing his helmet to slowly lower from the ceiling and back onto his head. He heard a sharp hiss as the helmet snapped back into place, then let out a loud breath. The top part of his pod then parted from the bottom and moved upward, revealing Piett standing there with his hands behind his back, seemingly anxious.

"Yes Admiral," Vader spoke in his deep, synthesized voice. "What is it that you need?"

"I just came to inform you that the _Avenger_ has returned from the hyperspace wormhole," he responded.

"Did they find anything on the other side of the gateway that could be of any use for the Empire?"

"They found something astonishing, in fact. I don't know how exactly I'm supposed to put this but… it appears they exited the portal in a completely different galaxy."

"Another galaxy? Are you certain?"

"Stellar arrangements in the region where Captain Pluma exited did not match up to any part of known space. Therefore, they must have gone somewhere that has not been mapped. Them entering another galaxy is the most reasonable conclusion."

"I see." Vader took a moment to consider the information that was being relayed to him. He had not expected that the portal created by the gateway would lead to somewhere that far away. _It seems that anything is possible with the Force,_ he thought quietly to himself.

"Was there anything of interest in the region where the _Avenger _exited?" he inquired.

"As a matter of fact, there was," Piett answered. "Scanners picked up a derelict ship drifting near the device on the other side. Commander Rex went in with a squad to investigate. They managed to extract intel from the computers on the bridge. I have a report with me that I already sent to the Emperor."

"Show me."

In response, Piett unfolded his hands from behind his back to reveal a datapad in his right hand. Vader reached out with the Force and pulled the pad out of the Admiral's hand and into his own.

"A linguistics program imbedded in the database allowed us to translate the data into a usable language," Piett explained as Vader looked over the information in front of him. "The ship belonged to a civilization in the other galaxy known as the Turian Hierarchy. The vessel had been disabled for thirty-two years, if we've interpreted the data correctly."

"How was the ship disabled?" Vader asked.

"Apparently the ship had taken some severe damage during a skirmish with extremist elements of an alien species known as the batarians. The vessel was forced to retreat and made what appears to be a random FTL jump. When they exited FTL, their drive core went offline, having been irreparably damaged it seems."

"What became of the ship's crew?"

"They attempted to increase their odds of survival by hibernating in stasis pods while a distress beacon was sent out. For unknown reasons, perhaps because the beacon went dead or because no ships were available, they were never rescued. At some point the stasis pods lost power and the surviving crew died. There was nothing registering on the life-form scanners when the _Avenger_ discovered the ship."

"You mentioned that the ship belonged to a government called the 'Turian Hierarchy.' What other forms of government exist in this galaxy that we have intelligence on?"

"Much of the known galaxy is under the authority of a government known as the Citadel Council, which operates from what we believe is a space station called the Citadel. From what we can gather, the Council is made up of three species: the turians are one of them, with the other two being the asari and salarians. Many other species have embassies on the Citadel, and the Council appears to have a measure of authority over them as well."

"What did we discover concerning the technological capacity of this civilization in comparison to our own?"

"Well, they are obviously capable of interstellar travel. However, what they use to travel faster-than-light, something called a 'mass effect drive', appears to operate much slower than our hyperdrives. They seem to be mainly reliant on a series of jump gates spread throughout their galaxy which they call mass relays, and they seem to allow for almost instantaneous travel from one end of the galaxy to another. These mass relays were apparently constructed by some long-lost civilization."

"Do we know anything about this galaxy's capabilities when it comes to weaponry?"

"Both their handheld and on-ship weaponry appear to be projectile-based, operating on principles similar to a railgun, using magnetism to accelerate a slug to extremely high velocities. They also possess shield technology, which seems to be able to deflect projectiles but not energy weapons like blasters. In all, they don't seem _quite _as advanced as us, but appear formidable nonetheless."

Piett couldn't tell from looking at him, but on the inside Vader was greatly pleased. A few days ago, he sent the _Avenger _through that gateway fully expecting them to come back with nothing, if at all. Now the Empire possessed extremely detailed information about a completely different civilization in a faraway galaxy. This was far beyond what Vader believed would come about as a result of this venture. The only remaining question was what the Emperor would do in response to all of this. That was a question he would answer himself later.

"Very good, Admiral," he told Piett. "I will contact the Emperor later concerning this new information. For now, I will remain here and look over this report in greater detail. You may return to the bridge."

"Yes, my lord," the Admiral responded. He then turned around and walked out of the room. Once he was out of sight, Vader once again pushed the switch on his chair, causing his pod to close once more.

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, there goes another chapter. With this one, I decided to delve a little deeper into Vader's inner psychology; his thoughts, memories, and regrets. I just hope I got his character right. Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter, especially how I handled Vader. I'm open to making revisions if necessary.**

**EDIT: As some of you may be aware, in the last episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (SPOILER ALERT!) Ahsoka ends up leaving the Jedi Order. Since this contradicts what I had written previously, I decided to edit that part with Ahsoka out of this chapter. This does not change my long-term plans for the character in this story, but I thought that I needed to update this chapter's content to reflect recent events. If there are any objections, please voice them by clicking the review button.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Well, seeing as nobody complained about how I characterized Vader, I'd say the last chapter was good. Now to see if I can keep it up. Also, I've got a poll up on my profile if anyone's interested in voting on it.**

**As always, reviews are appreciated.**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"Can I please shoot one of these now?" Dash asked Rex. Clearly he was eager to try out some of the weaponry they'd acquired.

"Cool it, private," the commander responded. "We still have to wait for the engineer's analysis on these guns to get in. Then your trigger-happy ass can shoot all you want."

"I just get tired of all this damn waiting."

"Would you rather we just fire off one of the things and possibly blow up the damn ship?" Varan piped up. "Until we know that using these things won't send any of us – most likely you – to the infirmary, we're sitting tight."

Dash let out a sigh. "Understood, sir."

The three stormtroopers were currently in the hangar of the _Avenger_, with a vast assortment of foreign weaponry sitting on a table next to them. A ways down the hangar were a few chest-plates of stormtrooper armor as well as the armor taken from the dead turian, to be used as targets in a makeshift firing range. The troopers were all without their helmets. Rex's head was shaved, Varan had a red mohawk, and Dash had a basic military crew cut. Other than those differences, they all shared the same face and voice.

Rex and Varan had both been part of the original Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. The GAR was entirely made up of virtually identical clone soldiers, all cloned from the late bounty hunter known as Jango Fett. During the first years of the New Order, the Stormtrooper Corps continued to be exclusively made up of Fett clones, most of which were survivors of the Clone Wars. However, following an uprising on Kamino in which the Kaminoans used their own clone army to attempt to break free of the Empire – the suppression of which Rex and Varan had taken part in – the Emperor decided that an army of genetically identical troopers was far too susceptible to corruption. As such, the Empire began cloning troopers from a variety of genetic templates, as well as making efforts to recruit ordinary citizens into the army. The 501st Legion was the only remaining force in the Empire that was still made up entirely of Fett clones, as they were the ones responsible for putting down the clone rebellion, and were seen as too loyal to rebel in any case.

Dash was a "shinie" who only recently got out of training. He wasn't nearly as experienced as Rex and Varan, but he was a committed soldier nonetheless. While in basic, he'd received some technical training, which gave him experience in hacking techniques and vehicle repair. He was relatively young and eager, though his enthusiasm and inexperience sometimes got on the nerves of his superior, Varan. The major never got used to dealing with rookies.

The three troopers' banter was cut short as a man in an engineer's uniform walked over to them. Rex immediately took notice and turned to address him.

"So, what are we dealing with here?" Rex inquired.

"These weapons are projectile-based, though they're more advanced than simple slugthrowers," the engineer explained. "There's a small block of ammunition inside the gun itself. Best we can tell, a small sand-sized particle is shaved off the block and shot out of the barrel every time a shot is made. Because so little of the block is used to make individual bullets, ammunition is essentially a non-issue in a firefight when using these weapons. The projectile is accelerated out the barrel at very high speeds by magnetic forces, similar to a railgun."

"Sounds deadly. Are these things gonna blow up in our hands when we try to fire them?"

"You should be fine testing them. A mechanism inside these guns causes them to shut down when they overheat, and they won't fire again until they cool down. I wouldn't suggest firing that rocket launcher in here, though."

"Thanks for the heads up." With that, the engineer walked off to attend to other duties. "Alright Dash, since you seem so eager to pull a trigger, why don't you try out that rifle over there?" Rex then pointed to an assault rifle sitting on the table.

"With pleasure, commander," Dash responded eagerly. The private then walked up to the table and grabbed the assault rifle. The main body of the gun was a dull, metallic gold, and there was a silver piece on top of the weapon that ended in a point over the barrel of the gun, with a silver piece that pointed outwards underneath the barrel as well. The weapon had jagged edges, and had an overall very alien look. It was also quite a bit larger and heavier than the E-11 blaster rifle Dash was used to carrying.

After getting a general feel for the weapon, the stormtrooper private walked over to one of the targets: a chest-plate for a set of stormtrooper armor. Standing about ten meters away, he flipped off the weapon's safety, and then set the stock against his shoulder as he aimed down the sights at the target. Pulling the trigger sent a hail of high-velocity projectiles at the piece of armor. For a weapon its size, the recoil wasn't as bad as he expected. After about twenty-five shots were sent down range, Dash released the trigger.

"Not a lot of recoil on that thing," the private observed. "Good ammo capacity, too. If this meter on the side measures heat, then I still only used about half the shots this thing would fire before overheating."

"Let's take a look at the damage," Varan said. The major walked up to the target to see the weapon's effectiveness. Leaning in and brushing his fingers over the armor, he saw that it was riddled with roughly fifteen bullet holes, indicating rounds that went through.

"Well, these rounds punched through the armor," he announced. "Must pack a hell of a punch for a projectile weapon."

"Good thing to know if we ever get in a confrontation with these turians," Rex remarked. "Speaking of which, let's see how their armor holds up." With those words, he picked up an E-11 from the table.

"Varan, turn on the shield generator," he ordered.

"Yes sir," the major responded, walking over to the set of turian armor. He reached out and turned something on in the back of the armor, then backed away. "Shield generator's active. Go ahead, Rex."

After walking over close to the target, Rex took a deep breath and brought his blaster rifle to eye level, aiming straight at the set of armor. Seven blaster bolts burst from his weapon and into the armor, creating a lot of sparks and smoke as a result, with the shields having no visible effect. The smoke cleared to reveal the armor charred and with several holes in it.

"Looks like the intel was right," Rex spoke. "Their shields don't do anything against blasters. Check the damage."

Doing what his commander ordered, Varan sauntered to the set of armor for a closer look.

"Looks like this guy's gonna have a hell of a bad day," Varan opined. "Though it looks like this armor gave the blaster a bit of resistance. Part of it just boiled away at the point of impact instead of letting the bolts punch through. Guess it's a design feature to help protect the wearer against energy weapons that'd make it past the shields. Can't hold up to sustained fire, though."

"Interesting," Rex said mostly to himself. "Command will definitely take note of this. In the meantime, we've still got some guns to shoot. Varan, go get that sniper rifle."

* * *

Vader kneeled in front of the holographic display in his chamber. A couple seconds later, the large, blue visage of the Emperor's face appeared in front of the Sith Lord.

"What is thy bidding, my master?" Vader said in subordination. He honestly hated kneeling before the man in servitude, but he did so anyway to keep the appearance that he was loyal.

"Lord Vader," the Emperor addressed his apprentice. "Piett sent me the report on the _Avenger_'s mission through the wormhole. This discovery of theirs is most fascinating."

"They were fortunate to discover the derelict ship upon arrival," Vader remarked. "Thanks to the ship's intel, we now have detailed information about this foreign galaxy. Governments, weaponry, species…"

"Yes, this information will most surely be a great asset to us. However, at the moment I believe it would be prudent to simply articulate the magnitude of this discovery. Vader, we stand on the precipice of a new era for the Empire and the galaxy. There is an entire civilization out there waiting for us to reach out to it; to bring the New Order's influence to a galaxy that as of yet does not know of our glorious society. We have an opportunity to extend the reach of the Empire far beyond what anyone could have imagined."

"Are you suggesting that we make an attempt to conquer this new galaxy?"

"Not necessarily. The Rebellion continues to be a thorn in the Empire's side. Starting another war would be foolhardy. No, for now the Empire should simply stake a claim in this new territory. Let this Citadel Council know that we have a foot in the door. Once the Alliance has been crushed, we may consider military action."

"I concur. Unfortunately, the data from the foreign vessel's navi-computer appears to have been corrupted. Our knowledge of this galaxy's available transit routes is deficient because of this."

"A minor setback, but one that can easily be remedied. I recall from the report that this galaxy's races travel across the galaxy using jump gates called mass relays. This network forms a series of interstellar routes that we can use in lieu of available hyperspace lanes."

"So if we were to locate a mass relay, we would have at our disposal a means of transporting our ships throughout this new territory."

"Precisely. Lord Vader, I want you to assemble a scouting fleet and send them through the gateway. Have them locate a mass relay and use it to travel beyond the immediate area and claim a few parcels of space for us."

"The technology in their mass effect drives does not allow them to travel far without mass relays, so one should not be far from the gateway."

"Most observant, my apprentice."

"I will assemble a small force under Admiral Hurkk. He will be able to accomplish this mission with due diligence. I just have one question, master."

"State your query, Vader."

"What should happen if this Council decides to attack our forces?"

"Then we will show them what becomes of those who dare oppose the Sith. If they are unwilling to cooperate with us, we will crush them under our heel."

"Understood, my master."

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter is a little short. I just thought it appropriate to end it there. Also, can anyone guess the type of assault rifle the troopers were using in the first section of this chapter? Anyone who can guess it correctly gets a free car! Well, not really, but I want to see who can get it right, or if I need to change the description.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Deep in uncharted space, a group of Imperial ships hovered around a large artifact. There were twelve ships in total: two _Imperial II_-class Star Destroyers (one of which was the _Avenger_), three _Acclamator II_-class assault ships, a _Victory II_-class Star Destroyer, and six _Tartan_-class patrol cruisers. The artifact they surrounded was several times bigger than any of the ships present. It consisted of two large metal arms about eight kilometers in length, with a pair of long antennae sticking out of the top portion of the artifact. The arms curved outward on one end, forming an oval space between them. Inside this oval space was a glowing blue light, with two rings revolving around it.

The scouting party led by Admiral Hurkk had been exploring uncharted space in the new galaxy for about a week. After entering the galaxy through the Celestial artifact – which had been appropriately nicknamed the "Galaxy Gate" – the small fleet managed to find a mass relay nearby. After activating the relay, they used it to jump to another part of space and proceeded to map out the nearby star system. For the next week, they continued to map out territory by using the mass relays as transit. So far they had yet to encounter any ships from the Council or any other native species.

The scouting fleet was currently in position near a mass relay that they recently discovered. The relay was currently inactive, and the Imperials had men inside the structure attempting to activate the device so that they could use it. Admiral Hurkk was near the rear of the bridge of his Star Destroyer, the _Leviathan_, standing in front of the holographic display, which showed an engineer in uniform.

"How much longer until the mass relay is active?" the admiral inquired.

"We've located the structure's inactive power generator," the blue visage of the engineer responded. "We should have the relay functional within half an hour."

"Excellent. Once the relay is active, you may take the shuttles back to your ships as we prepare to make the jump. Carry on."

"Yes, Admiral." Hurkk turned away from the display as the image of the engineer disappeared. He then let out a sigh as he made his way to the main bridge viewports. As he crossed the walkway, he looked to his left and right as his subordinates worked diligently down in the crew pits, tirelessly going over the data streaming over the command consoles.

Gazing outside the viewport at the rest of the assembled fleet, Hurkk knew that their job here was almost finished. This would be the last mass relay they would activate on their scouting trip. Once they mapped out the other side of the relay, they would head back to the Galaxy Gate and make the journey back to their galaxy to report to Lord Vader. The Emperor would then send ships to secure the territory they'd acquired and possibly make contact with the Citadel Council.

Hurkk was inwardly pleased at the progress they had made in such a short span of time. They'd managed to map out several star systems during their expedition, many of which had habitable planets which were unoccupied. They would serve well as military outposts and bases for the Empire as it gained a foothold in the region. No doubt the Emperor would be most pleased at the admiral's performance in this mission. _I might even receive a commendation for this,_ he mused.

Hurkk's thoughts of recognition for his service were cut short as one of the officers from the crew pit called out to him.

"Admiral," he said. "I'm reading several vessels coming out of FTL in this area."

"I wasn't aware that Lord Vader was sending additional ships," Hurkk responded as he turned to face the officer.

"They're not ours, sir."

"What? Then whose are they?"

"Unknown sir. They don't match known ship classifi… wait. I've got a match on two of the ships. Signatures match that of the derelict turian vessel discovered by the _Avenger_ two weeks ago."

A look of realization spread across the aging admiral's features. "Council ships." He then turned his head back to the viewport to find himself looking at several alien vessels in the distance. There were seven ships; two of them matched profiles of the turian cruiser which was discovered by the_ Avenger _when it first entered the galaxy. A third cruiser was radically different from the others. Its hull was smooth and sleek, unlike the turian cruisers that flanked it which had jagged plates covering their hulls. The body of the ship was flattened, with hull extensions on the sides and one projecting from the bottom of the ship. A large oval cavity in the front of the vessel was illuminated with a white light. There were four smaller unidentified vessels nearby, presumably serving as frigates.

"We've made contact," the admiral muttered to nobody in particular. He had been hoping to avoid contact with the Council during the expedition. He was a military officer; diplomacy was nowhere near his expertise. Now, just as their mission was about to be completed, he found himself faced with a small force of ships that had come to intercept them. He wasn't sure what they were going to do.

"Admiral," called one of the technicians from the back of the bridge. "We're receiving a transmission from one of the cruisers. You best come and listen."

Hurkk rushed over to one of the communications consoles located in the back of the bridge. "Patch it through," he ordered. The technician then entered a few commands into the console. A transmission was heard coming from the console, but it was in a language the admiral did not understand. "Run it through the translators," he told the technician. Thanks to the linguistics program embedded in the computer of the derelict ship from before, they had the capacity to translate this galaxy's languages into a format they could understand. There was static for a moment until the message became clearer.

"… repeat, this is turian Captain Turik Kasil speaking on behalf of the Citadel Council," a voice said. "Unidentified vessels, you are in violation of Citadel regulations forbidding the activation of dormant mass relays. Cease and desist your present course of action immediately."

"Damn it," Hurkk swore. "It appears that the Council doesn't appreciate our actions here."

"Should I send a return transmission, sir?" the technician asked.

"Negative. Give me a minute to think."

"Yes sir."

Hurkk wasn't sure what course of action would be best at the moment. _Should I do what they ask?_ he asked himself. _Not doing so might trigger hostilities. But if I capitulate to their demands, that makes the Empire seem weak. The Emperor definitely wouldn't appreciate that. _

After about a minute of the admiral having this argument in his head, he was interrupted as one of the officers at the defense station on the main bridge called out to him.

"Sir," he spoke. "The ships are moving toward us. They're making a move to intercept our vessels."

"Blast it." Hurkk said in response. "Are they making any indications that they plan to attack?"

"I can't tell… wait. Scanners are showing increased power to shield and weapon systems."

"They're going to attack us!"

"Sir, we haven't answered their transmission, so it could simply be a cautionary-"

"Or they could be meaning to open fire on our ships," Hurkk shot back. Raising his hand to his ear, he spoke into the comms and gave an order to the rest of the fleet. "This is Admiral Hurkk. All ships charge up turbolasers and open fire on hostile ships at once."

"But sir," the officer pleaded. "What if-"

"I said open fire, damn it! That's an order!"

The officer had a conflicted expression etched across his face for a moment before finally answering "yes sir."

Within seconds, a barrage of turbolaser fire erupted from the _Leviathan_'s main guns at the Council fleet. The other ships soon followed suit. Hurkk watched from the bridge as two of the frigates collapsed under heavy fire. Seconds later, the main guns of the cruisers fired in concert with each other. Two of the _Tartan_ cruisers were destroyed instantly in fiery explosions, while an _Acclamator_ was heavily damaged from a large accelerated slug impacting against its hull.

"Sir!" an officer cried out, alarmed. "They just took out two of our _Tartan_s and one of the frigates just suffered heavy damage!"

"What!" the admiral replied, shocked. "How?"

"They're using kinetic weapons that get past our ray shields, and our particle shields were meant to stand up to debris, not kinetic weapons of that high yield!"

"Admiral!" another officer yelled. "I'm reading multiple fighters incoming!"

"Order the remaining _Tartan_s to move into position to intercept," the Admiral barked. "Tell all ships to launch all TIE fighters at once! Divert all available power to weapon systems; their shields won't do anything against our turbolasers."

Thus, the battle between the Empire and the Council ships commenced. A vast number of turian fighters zoomed towards the Imperial fleet, only to be met by an even larger swarm of TIE fighters as the larger ships exchanged fire. The turian fighters fired their guns at the oncoming hostiles, causing many to explode in balls of fire. The TIEs, however, quickly overwhelmed the enemy craft, and the turian squadrons thinned drastically. What few fighters made it through were swiftly shot out of the sky by the _Tartan_ crafts' light blaster fire.

Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet's warships were raining hell on the Council's force. The last two frigates were blown into a million pieces from the ships' heavy turbolaser fire. The cruisers, however, opened fire again, taking out another _Tartan_ and causing the already damaged _Acclamator _to split into two pieces, which then exploded. Then, a swarm of TIE bombers came swooping in, having made it past the enemy fighters. The bombers unleashed a payload of proton bombs on the unidentified cruiser, causing it to erupt into a shower of fire and debris. The two remaining ships, both turian cruisers, fired simultaneously at the _Leviathan_, landing direct hits on the hull. The entire bridge shook violently as the slugs made contact.

"Report!" Hurkk yelled at the crew.

"Two direct hits, sir!" a technician yelled. "Hull integrity at sixty-four percent."

"Concentrate fire on those cruisers!"

At the admiral's orders, the fleet let loose its main guns on the last two ships. One of the cruisers was destroyed, while the other was heavily damaged.

"Leave that last cruiser intact," Hurkk ordered. "I have an idea. Hail Captain Pluma and tell him to send a boarding party onto that ship. The commander of that vessel would make a very valuable prisoner."

"Right away sir," the communications technician answered.

* * *

A _Sentinel_-class landing craft sped from the Imperial fleet towards the remaining turian vessel, flanked on both sides by a pair of TIE fighters. Inside, Commander Rex and a squad of thirty stormtroopers were sitting with weapons at the ready, prepared to fight at a moment's notice. Seeing as Rex had previously been on board a turian cruiser, and was thus familiar with the layout, he had been assigned to lead a boarding party to capture the ship's commander. Rex was both anxious about engaging an enemy that they knew relatively little about, and excited about finally seeing some action after two weeks of doing nothing.

"Alright men, we've got our orders," Rex barked at his men. "We are to board that vessel, fight our way to the bridge, and capture the ship's commander alive. Two squads will proceed down the two main passageways to the bridge while another squad of troopers will guard the shuttle at the hangar bay. Be careful in there; keep in mind that even though our blasters can get through their shields, their guns can punch through our armor. Keep to whatever cover you can, don't take risks. Are we clear, men?"

"Sir, yes sir!" the squad responded in unison.

"Good, now lock and load."

As the shuttle and its TIE escort neared the disabled cruiser, a swarm of seven turian fighters flew towards them to take them out. Firing their weapons, they took out three of the TIE fighters. The shuttle and remaining TIE opened fire with their blaster cannons, taking out three of the fighters before the last TIE went up in flames. With four fighters left, the _Sentinel_ extended one of its concussion missile launchers. All four missiles shot out of the launcher, all hitting one of the fighters, setting them all ablaze as the shuttle sped past the burning debris.

"Approaching the hangar bay, commander," the pilot radioed in from the cockpit.

"Take us in, lieutenant," Rex replied. "Men, stand by the port shuttle door and prepare to unload. We're coming in hot!"

* * *

**Author's Note: The **_**Victory II**_**-class Star Destroyer and **_**Tartan**_**-class patrol cruiser both originate from the LucasArts game **_**Star Wars: Empire at War**_**. I haven't played that game, but the suggestion to use these ship classes came from a member of this site known as Darth Revan the Second, who is serving as a technical advisor for this story. He's pretty much an expert on all things Star Wars, and I'd just like to say he's been a great help so far.**

**As for the mass relay's size, BioWare has never really given specific dimensions on those things, so I pretty much had to estimate it from an in-game image. It took a lot of splicing together images on Paint and some serious number-crunching, but I think I came close. Someone please tell me if my estimate is off. Please also tell me if my description of an asari cruiser is off.**

**Please review. Oh, and that poll on my profile is still open if anyone else wants to vote on it.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Inside the hangar bay of the disabled cruiser, a squad of twenty-five turian marines was gearing up for a fight. The captain had just informed them that a shuttle was heading their way, and they were under orders to hold the hangar at all costs. Several of the marines were setting up barricades made out of crates to act as cover, while others were loading their weapons with thermal clips. Among the marines, a turian sergeant stood out among them, holding onto his Phaeston assault rifle tightly and barking out orders to his men.

"Get those barricades set up on the double!" the sergeant yelled at his troops, pointing at various soldiers as he gave them orders, "Private, set up proximity mines over there! You, I want concussive rounds on those targets as soon as their boots hit the floor! Let's move men! Come on, we're about to have company!"

As the marines quickly carried out their commands, the sergeant noticed a small dot outside the hangar. The dot grew larger and larger as it approached, until the sergeant was able to make out enough detail to identify it as a large, tri-winged shuttle, the design of which resembled nothing he had ever seen before.

"Get into position, men!" he barked. "Hostiles heading our way! Nobody gets past this hangar, understood?"

"Yes sir!" the men responded in unison.

* * *

Rex stood with about half of his men near the portside door on the shuttle, ready to exit at any moment. The stormtroopers had their blasters ready, saying nothing as the shuttle grew closer to the hangar. There was no lighting in the cabin except for a red light which would turn green when it was time for the soldiers to disembark. Rex was focused, determined, and ready for action. His training on Kamino and his years of experience on the battlefield prepared him for just such a fight.

"Varan, you in position?" he asked over the comlink.

"We're standing by the starboard shuttle door ready to unload and raise hell once we land in the hangar," the major responded.

"Good. As soon as that light turns green, shoot anything that moves."

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem, commander. Just so long as Dash here doesn't do something stupid to get himself killed."

"I'm standing right here, major!" the private shot back over the radio.

"Cut the chatter you two!" Rex snapped. "We're almost there."

Rex could feel the deceleration as the shuttle slowed down to enter the hangar. There was an audible thump as the shuttle landed on the bay floor. Suddenly, the red light turned green and the door slid open to reveal a ramp extending out to the floor.

"Go, go, go!" Rex yelled at his troopers. In a split-second, the men piled out of the shuttle, turning around and firing their blasters at the turians, who swiftly fired back. Several of the men were knocked back by large, high powered rounds striking them in the chest. Rex immediately pulled out his dual pistols and bolted down the ramp. He turned to his right and fired his blasters, scoring headshots on two turians before sliding into cover behind a pair of crates as his shields failed. As he waited for his shields to recharge, another stormtrooper got into cover next to him.

"Let 'em have it!" he yelled at the trooper next to him. Instantly they both raised their heads out of cover and fired back at the defenders. The turians held their ground, though, and Rex had to duck as a volley of bullets whizzed by his head. He heard an audible grunt as the trooper next to him fell to the ground, his helmet now having several bullet holes with blood gushing out. He heard the screams of several of his brothers as they were cut down outside his field of vision.

_Bastards are putting up a hell of a fight_, Rex thought. _We've got to deal with these guys fast. _"Detonators, now!" he ordered, pulling out a thermal detonator. Flipping the switch to activate it, he raised his head out of cover and hurled the grenade near a barricade of crates with two turians near it. The detonator landed behind them, and they barely had time to turn around before it exploded, sending their now charred, shrapnel-filled bodies flying. Rex took notice as several other detonators went off in the turian ranks, decimating the defenders.

"Keep pushing, men!" he barked, once again firing his pistols at the enemy soldiers, of which there were only around a half dozen left. Leaping over the crate, Rex fired his blasters at the survivors, killing another turian before ducking behind another piece of cover. The other troopers kept up their attack until only one turian was left, the sergeant. Upon seeing the rest of his men dead, the sergeant yelled in fury, jumping over his piece of cover and running straight for the nearest stormtrooper. He swung his rifle right at the trooper's helmeted head, breaking his neck in the process. He then quickly turned to face another trooper, who he fired his rifle at, riddling the trooper with bullets. This rampage didn't last long as the other troopers fired their blasters at the remaining turian, several bolts impacting all across his torso, causing him to drop his rifle and fall to his knees. The turian sergeant was gasping heavily, the severity of his wounds making him unable to put up any more resistance. As he heard a clicking sound close to his head, he looked up to see Major Varan, who was pointing a blaster right in his face.

"Say goodnight, lizard breath," the major remarked before pulling the trigger, sending a bolt right into the alien's head. The sergeant fell flat on his face, dead.

Rex stood up from his cover and holstered his blasters, looking at the scene before him. All of the turians were dead, and several were mangled beyond recognition from the detonator blasts. The commander let out a sigh as he saw more than a few of his brothers lying motionless on the ground, their crimson blood smeared all over their normally pristine white armor. It was a sight Rex wasn't used to seeing. While he'd seen plenty of his men die before in the field of battle, blaster bolts cauterized the wounds they made, while the projectile weapons their enemies used led to their targets bleeding out. _Very_ profusely, he would add. The sight was a bit disturbing, but the soldier quickly brushed it off as he walked over to the major.

"What are our casualties?" Rex inquired.

"We've got ten men dead and four injured," Varan answered. "They're bleeding out pretty bad. A couple of men on my side got blasted to pieces by some mines. Wasn't pretty."

"Damn it, this is going to hell pretty fast. Now we're down to half-strength."

"Should we pull out? Cut our losses?"

"Negative. We stick to the plan. No matter what, that captain's coming home with us."

"Aye aye, sir."

"Commander, take a look at this," Dash piped in a short distance away, waving his hand to tell the commander to come over. Rex walked over and kneeled down next to the private, who was kneeling on the ground near a small object. "Saw this eject out of one of the turian's guns." On the ground was a small metal hexagonal cylinder with red bars on the side. Dash lightly touched it briefly with his finger before removing it. "It's hot. Looks like a detachable heat sink for their weapons."

"Guess they've updated their guns in the last thirty years or so," Rex added.

"So it seems."

"Alright, enough standing around here," Rex said as he stood up. "We've still got a job to do. Varan, have four of our men stay here to look after the wounded and guard the shuttle. Everyone else, stick to the plan."

"That leaves us with only ten men to storm the bridge," Varan chimed in.

"We'll have to make do with what we've got."

* * *

To say that Turik Kasil was angry at the situation would be a vast understatement. The turian captain had taken charge of what he assumed would be a simple mission to investigate an unidentified force that had been activating dormant mass relays, which was in opposition to Citadel regulations. He encountered the foreign ships whilst they were in the middle of activating a relay, and was mindful enough to send a transmission to tell them what they were doing wrong and to stop. There was no way he'd allow a repeat of the incident at Shanxi years before with the humans. He'd given the unidentified fleet plenty of opportunity to respond, and when they didn't, he was concerned. Thus, he'd moved his ships in closer and had them divert power to shields and weapons as a precautionary measure.

The next thing he knew, his fleet was decimated by the enemy using directed-energy weapons that passed through kinetic barriers as though they weren't there. All of his ships - save for the cruiser he was on - were destroyed, and the enemy still had a sizable force. Just as he thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, a boarding party had apparently taken out his troops in charge of guarding the hangar, and was heading his way, most likely to capture him. Kasil did not like the way the situation was going, and he knew that this wasn't going to end well. A distress signal had been sent, but he doubted that reinforcements would arrive in time to help them. He'd have to face the inevitable: he was going to be taken captive, and so were his crew, provided that they weren't outright killed.

He wasn't going to go down without a fight, though. _No,_ he thought as he stood silently on the platform in front of the Galaxy Map on the bridge. _I swear by the spirits, whoever these bastards are, they're going to pay in blood for every single man that lost their lives here._

* * *

Rex and his remaining men swiftly huddled by the door to the bridge, prepared to breach and enter to capture the ship's commanding officer. They'd encountered surprisingly little resistance on their way to the bridge, though a couple of stormtroopers were killed as the men were ambushed turning a corner in the hallway. Another soldier was currently injured in his side from a stray shot. There were eight men left, including Rex, Varan, Dash, and five other troopers. Rex stood on one side of the door with three other troopers, while Varan and Dash were on the other side with two other troopers.

"Alright men, this is it," Rex said. "The captain's got to be here. Dash, would you do the honors?"

"On it, commander," the private replied. He moved in front of the door, holstered his blaster and removed the cylindrical thermal detonator attached to the back of his armor. After pulling it out, he attached it to the door and entered in the special arming code. "Charge is hot, everybody clear!" he then backed away from the door and resumed his position next to his comrades. Seconds later, the charge exploded, causing the door to get blown from its place and fall in pieces on the floor inside the bridge a few meters from the doorway.

The stormtroopers wasted no time in storming the bridge. As they entered, a pair of turrets on the ceiling turned to face them, only to swiftly be dispatched by a series of well-placed shots from Varan and Dash. The turians guarding the bridge, six in total, immediately opened fire, killing three of the troopers who were standing out in the open. Rex took out a pair of them with headshots, while Varan and Dash each took one out with their blasters. The other two fell quickly to the troopers' blaster fire.

The captain, who was standing on the platform in front of the holographic display (which at the moment showed an image of the galaxy), immediately raised his pistol, shooting one trooper in the head, killing him. With lightning-fast reflexes, Rex raised his own pistol and swiftly shot the captain's, destroying it. The captain was clearly angered by this, and unsheathed a long, curved knife from his waist as he charged the commander. Rex leaned back to dodge a strike that was aimed at his throat before grabbing the turian's wrist that was holding the knife. The captain used his other hand to land an uppercut on Rex, knocking away his helmet and causing him to fall over. As the turian raised his knife, a blue stun blast from a blaster struck him, causing him to quickly fall over and drop the knife. A few feet away, Dash was pointing an E-11 at the now-subdued turian.

"And stay down," Dash quipped.

"Thanks for the help, Dash," Rex said as he picked himself up off the floor. "Not that I really needed it. I had everything under control."

"Doesn't look like that from where I'm standing. I saved your life, just admit it."

"Sure. When Wookiees can learn to speak Basic."

"Very funny, commander."

"Don't feel bad, private," Varan chimed in, walking up to Dash and patting him on the back. "You did a good job today. Better than I thought you'd do."

"Does this mean you'll stop calling me a shinie?" Dash asked.

"I'll think about it."

While the two were bantering, Rex walked over to his discarded helmet and put it back on. He then sauntered to the unconscious turian captain, stopping to pick up his discarded knife. "Nice blade he's got here," he quipped. "I think I'll keep this." Rex then grabbed the sheath from the captain's torso and sheathed the blade in it. Putting the knife away, he grabbed the turian's arms and lifted him to his knees, stirring the captain awake.

"Alright captain, say goodbye to your ship," Rex said, the translator in his helmet converting his speech into the turian language so the captain could understand him. "You're coming with us."

"Humans?" the turian spoke, his voice revealing a mix of shock and anger as Rex put a pair of binders on him. "Don't tell me the Alliance is behind this!"

"What the hell are you talking about? You've never encountered our kind before."

"What, are you trying to play dumb? Don't tell me you don't remember Shanxi. The First Contact War? We were on the brink of a full-scale conflict before the Council intervened! Hell, now your kind in _on _the Council! Don't just stand there and tell me all of that never happened!"

"What a load of Bantha poodoo," Dash opined.

"Uh, private," Varan cut in. "I don't think he's lying."

"Of course I'm not lying!" the captain shouted in anger. "Now who the hell sent you? Was it the Alliance? Cerberus? Who?"

Rex was dumbfounded. The Empire had only just now come across these turians, and yet this one was saying that they had crossed paths before; that there was some kind of war between the two species. He even claimed that humans were on the Council. Rex was silent as a shocking realization took hold: there were other humans in this galaxy. Not some small fringe population of humans either; they were apparently a key player in galactic society. Dash and Varan were oddly silent as well, and Rex knew they were having the same realization he was. It was shocking. Questions were racing through Rex's head at light-speed, none of which Rex had the answers to. He did know, however, who might be able to answer them.

"Look, lizard," Rex barked at the turian. "I don't know what the hell you're going on about, but you're coming with us so we can figure that out."

"Or what?" the captain dared. There was a pause as he suddenly found a curved metal knife being held against his throat.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Point taken."

"On your feet, now!" Rex yanked the turian captain up, who quickly found his footing and stood. Rex then raised his hand and spoke into the comlink. "Admiral Hurkk, this is Commander Rex," he said. "The captain is now in custody. And he's got some very interesting things to say."

"Excellent work, commander," the admiral replied back over the comm. "Take the prisoner and what's left of your men and prepare to evacuate the ship. We're about to send a wing of TIE bombers to destroy it."

"Admiral, is that really necessary? What about the rest of the crew? Why don't we simply take-"

"Are you questioning my orders, commander?"

Rex was silent for a brief moment. "No… no sir, I'm not."

"Then evacuate the ship. _Now_."

"Understood, Admiral." Rex lowered his hand down to his side as the comlink was cut off. "Come on men, we're leaving." With that, the remaining four stormtroopers marched out of the bridge, their prisoner in tow. Unbeknownst to them, however, a single turian lay on the floor on the far side of the bridge, injured badly. His omni-tool was active, having recorded the entire exchange. With wading strength, he punched a few commands into the device as the data was sent to the Council. The turian took one last breath and then slumped over, dead.

* * *

The _Sentinel_-class shuttle slowly hovered above the floor in the hangar bay. Inside were the remaining fourteen stormtroopers and the captured turian captain. The shuttle turned around to face the exit, unfolded its wings and then fired its boosters, speeding out of the hangar. The shuttle immediately was set on a course for the Imperial scouting fleet. As it sped towards the fleet, it was passed by a wing of TIE bombers, heading for the disabled turian cruiser the shuttle had just exited. The bombers unleashed their payload of proton bombs, and the ship was consumed in a massive explosion, with any surviving crew being taken along with it.

* * *

**Author's Note: Wow, 3,000 words. That's the longest chapter I've written so far. I wonder if this will keep up.**

**I'd like to add that this chapter was beta reviewed by erttheking, who has also agreed to help me out with this story. In case you don't know who that is, he's the author of some pretty awesome sci-fi crossovers, including **_**Fighting for a Purpose**_** (Star Wars/Halo), **_**Mass Effect: New Origins **_**(Halo/Mass Effect), and **_**From the Ashes**_** (Fallout/Mass Effect), the last of which has just had its first chapter posted. If you have never read any of those fics, stop what you're doing right now and go read them, dang it! Well, after leaving a review, of course.**

**You're welcome for the free advertizing, ert.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Councilor Donnel Udina walked at a brisk pace down a corridor on the Citadel, a scowl etched on his face. One could tell just by looking at him that he was in a bad mood. Just ten minutes ago, he had received a message from Councilor Tevos calling for an emergency Council meeting, and Udina had to drop what he was doing and attend immediately. He obviously wasn't pleased at this sudden development; his day was already hectic. He had several dozen unread messages in his inbox which he had to look through himself on account of his secretary being out sick, the volus ambassador was _still_ refusing to negotiate the terms of the Vol Protectorate's recent trade agreement with the Alliance, and later he had to sit through an appeal from a Kassa Fabrication representative who was trying to sell a new line of bio-amps to the Alliance military. Udina swore that his head would explode if anything else was added to his plate.

Sometimes he wondered how in the world Anderson was able to handle being the human councilor for as long as he did. The former captain had assumed the role at Commander Shepard's recommendation after the Battle of the Citadel, and had stayed councilor for two years after that. Just a few months before however, he stepped down from the position and rejoined the Alliance Navy as an admiral, leaving the title to Udina. The former human ambassador was pleased that he finally had the role of councilor after two years of being stuck as Anderson's advisor, and he agreed that Anderson was not cut out for such a role, being more a man of action than politics. That didn't mean that during those two years of being an advisor he envied all of the more tedious aspects of being councilor. He was confident of his ability to handle such things, but there were times that he really wished that he didn't need to.

Udina let out a frustrated sigh as he approached the conference room where the meeting would take place. At the door was an asari C-Sec officer, who he quickly showed his ID. She stepped aside and the door opened, allowing Udina to walk in. In the middle of the room was a round table, and seated around it were the other three councilors: Sparatus, Tevos, and Valern, representing the turians, asari, and salarians respectively.

"Udina," Sparatus piped. "You're late."

"Apologies for the delay, Sparatus," Udina responded, a hint of irritation in his voice. "I was in the middle of trade negotiations when I received the message. I was making progress before I was interrupted by this meeting."

"Obviously the meaning of the word 'urgent' did not come across very well with you, seeing as you took your sweet time to get here."

Udina shot the turian a glare, which was quickly returned in kind. Sparatus and Udina often found themselves at odds with each other during Council meetings. The turian councilor made it clear from his attitude on several occasions that he didn't trust Udina in the slightest. The human councilor wasn't clear exactly why. Some of the attitude could have been lingering tension from the First Contact War, or perhaps he simply didn't trust his human counterpart on a personal level. Regardless of the root of these sentiments, Udina harbored much contempt for this treatment. Despite humanity's great progress since gaining an embassy on the Citadel and their sacrifice to save the Council during Sovereign's attack, there were still those who considered humanity a second-rate species. This was a prejudice that Udina was determined to reverse, and he was willing to do whatever it took to achieve that, even if it meant dealing with the likes of Sparatus.

"That's enough Sparatus," Tevos cut in. "We have more important matters to discuss."

"What exactly is so urgent that this meeting had to be called?" Udina inquired as he took his seat at the conference table.

"As you most likely recall," said Valern, "three days ago we sent a patrol of ships to investigate the activation of dormant mass relays on the edge of Council space. Our patrol found a force of unidentified ships near a mass relay, presumably trying to activate it."

"Scans gave us details about the composition of the small fleet, which included several unknown classes of ships," Sparatus said. After he punched a few commands into his omni-tool, a holographic display appeared over the conference table. The hologram showed a mass relay with several strange ships hovering in space near it. There were several small vessels among a handful of triangular, wedge-shaped craft. Two of those ships stood out as being quite larger than the rest. The rest of the display was phased out as focus was given on one of the large ships. "There were twelve ships in total. Two of the vessels, which appear to be of the same class, were much larger than the others. Both were approximately 1600 meters long, larger than any of our dreadnoughts."

"The lead ship sent out a transmission to the vessels, but they did not respond," added Tevos as the display zoomed out again, showing the anonymous fleet along with the patrol. "Our fleet then moved in closer to the unidentified vessels and put up defensive measures as a matter of caution. The craft opened fire on our patrol. They used energy weapons that passed right through the ships' kinetic barriers. The fleet put up a fight and took out several of the enemy ships, but was destroyed nonetheless." As Tevos spoke, several of the mysterious ships blinked out of the display one-by-one, while the Citadel ships disappeared quickly until only one was left. After a few seconds, it was gone as well.

"Do we have any idea who was behind this attack?" Udina asked.

"We were hoping you could tell us that, Udina," Sparatus chimed in, anger spilling over into his tone.

"What are you talking about?"

Tevos activated her omni-tool and punched a few commands into it. "You may want to check your omni-tool," she said. Immediately, Udina heard a beeping sound as his omni-tool received a message. He activated the device and found that there was a video recording in his inbox. He opened the link and a video screen appeared above his arm. The recording was of the bridge of a turian ship, and there were several turian bodies scattered across the floor. The shaking camera indicated that the recording was most likely made with an omni-tool. Near the entrance to the bridge were a few bodies of figures in white armor, and several beings wearing the same armor were still standing. On the platform above the Galaxy Map was the turian captain, who raised his pistol and shot one of the troopers in the head, killing him. Another trooper, whose armor was similar but had blue markings running across parts of it, raised his own weapon and fired. A bright red bolt of energy shot out of the gun and hit the captain's pistol, utterly destroying it. The captain pulled out a knife and rushed the figure, slashing at him with the knife. The figure dodged and grabbed the captain's arm, seemingly intending to grab the knife. The captain landed an uppercut on the figure, which knocked away his helmet and caused him to fall back. Udina's eyes widened in shock, and he hit rewind, played, and then paused the recording the moment the helmet came loose.

The head that was under the helmet was that of a human.

"What sort of madness is this?" Udina snapped.

"Don't assume you have no idea!" Sparatus barked, getting up out of his seat and slamming his hands against the table. "The ones who attacked our patrol were humans equipped with advanced starships and military-grade technology. I want to know if you have any idea what-"

"Are you seriously implying that the Alliance is somehow responsible for this attack?"

"I didn't exactly say that you weren't; that's what I want to find out!"

"This is an outrage!" Udina too stood up and slammed his hands against the table, shooting daggers at the turian councilor from across the table. "Humanity has stood by the Council since the Battle of the Citadel years ago! We would never jeopardize our relations with the other Council races by participating in an attack against them! Are you delusional?"

"Obviously humanity _did _participate in an attack on our patrol. The question is whether or not you or the Alliance had any hand in it!"

"Gentlemen, that's quite enough!" interrupted Tevos, standing up and raising her hands at her two counterparts. "We don't have all the facts yet. Perhaps if we take a look at the rest of the recording, we will glean from it some extra context."

"Are you telling me that you didn't even look at the entire thing and this turian is making these baseless accusations without complete knowledge?" Udina asked, extremely angry at this point.

"Tevos and I thought it best to wait until you were present to give you a chance to explain things," Valern elaborated. "While I agree that Alliance involvement is highly unlikely, the fact that the attackers were human and possessed such advanced technology raises some serious questions about who was responsible and why. We wanted you to see for yourself and give your viewpoint so that we could avoid jumping to conclusions."

"Looks like _someone_ decided to form his own conclusions anyway." Udina shot a glare towards Sparatus as he said those words. "Well then, why don't we look at the rest of the recording, shall we?"

"I'll put it on the viewscreen," Sparatus said, typing a few commands into his omni-tool. A large screen lowered from the ceiling on one side of the room. The screen flickered to life and the recording of the bridge was shown. Sparatus fast-forwarded to the part where the white-armored human – most likely the squad leader judging by the special markings and additions to his armor - had his helmet knocked off and fell to the ground. As the turian captain raised his knife, one of the troopers fired a blue burst of energy at the turian, which appeared to stun him and caused him to fall to the ground. There were some words exchanged between the fallen trooper and a couple other soldiers, who were still helmeted.

The fallen commander got up and retrieved his helmet from the floor, putting it back on before walking up to the fallen captain. He stopped to pick up the captain's knife and sheath before lifting the turian to his knees and putting him in handcuffs.

"Humans?" the captain said angrily. "Don't tell me the Alliance is behind this!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked the squad leader. "You've never encountered our kind before."

As those words were spoken, the recording was paused as the councilors sat there confused.

"Why the hell is that soldier saying that humanity has never encountered my kind before?" Sparatus asked, flabbergasted.

"I don't know," Tevos responded. "However, this force being a separate entity from the Council and Alliance might explain their unfamiliarity with us and the vast difference between their technology and ours."

"But that's impossible!" Udina cut in. "The Alliance has been in contact with the Citadel for nearly thirty years, and it was only eight years before first contact was made that humanity discovered the mass relays. A large offshoot of humans never defected from the Alliance within those first eight years, and first contact was so highly publicized that it would be impossible for any human to be caught unaware of it after the fact."

"Perhaps this human is lying about being unaware of the Council?" Sparatus suggested.

"What purpose would that serve?" Valern replied. "What possible motivation would they have, especially seeing as it would be completely obvious that they were lying?"

"Perhaps we should continue the recording," Tevos interrupted.

"Agreed," Udina responded. With that, the recording continued. As the troopers and the turian captain continued to exchange words, the general gist of the conversation didn't change; the captain accused them of being Alliance or Cerberus, and the troopers still appeared to have absolutely no idea what he was talking about. After a short length of time, the white-armored soldiers lifted the captain to his feet and walked him out of the bridge. Once the troopers exited the bridge, the recording ended.

"This doesn't make any sense," Sparatus said. "According to those troopers, humanity never encountered the Council, but we've been in contact with the Alliance for thirty years."

"Perhaps the Protheans took humans from Earth thousands of years ago and transplanted them somewhere else before they disappeared," Tevos suggested. "These humans could have developed as a society separate from humans on Earth, and we're just now coming across them."

"That's a possibility," Valern spoke. "Of course, regardless of the origins of these humans, they represent a threat. They likely saw our actions as aggressive towards them. This could be considered an act of war."

"Agreed," Sparatus said. "They very well could be planning a counterattack as we speak."

"In that case, I suggest we alert our fleets of this recent development," Udina advised. "Fortify our borders in case of attack. I'll contact Admiral Hackett and order him to send defensive fleets to our border colonies."

"We will do the same with our fleets," Tevos replied. "In that case, I believe our business here is finished for now. Meeting adjourned."

At the asari's words, the councilors rose from their seats and walked towards the door. Before he exited into the hallway, Udina was stopped as Sparatus grabbed his arm.

"I'm still not entirely sure what's going on here," Sparatus whispered. "But until I'm one hundred percent certain that you aren't involved, I'll be keeping an eye on you. Just remember that, councilor."

"Duly noted," Udina growled. Sparatus then let go of his human counterpart's arm and walked away to attend to his other duties. Udina let out a frustrated sigh and marched down the hallway. _It's times like these when I truly understand why Anderson resigned,_ he thought to himself.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry if it took a little while to get this chapter up, but I procrastinated more than I should have. **

**Anyway, BioWare recently announced the Rebellion DLC pack for Mass Effect 3. This represents one of the few good things to come out of the ending debacle: BioWare is so embarrassed that they keep giving out free stuff to all of their enraged fans. First the Extended Cut, then Resurgence, now another multiplayer pack with Ex-Cerberus and vorcha. Now if only I had Xbox Live so I can freaking play it!**

**Thank you once again erttheking for taking a look at this chapter beforehand.**

**Please review.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Admiral Hurkk was wringing his sweaty hands behind his back as the turbolift ascended. He tapped his foot nervously against the floor as he swallowed, his mouth being unusually dry. He could feel his heart beating harder in his chest than normal, and he had an uncomfortable feeling of nausea in the pit of his stomach. He quickly glanced over at the control terminal of the turbolift; the lift was slowly but surely making its way to the bridge. It wasn't moving slowly enough in Hurkk's opinion.

After the skirmish with the Council patrol near the mass relay, during which a turian captain was taken hostage, the surviving vessels of the scouting fleet made a series of jumps back to the Galaxy Gate and traveled through the gateway back to their native galaxy. Upon arrival, Hurkk had sent his report on the scouting mission to the Emperor. Inside the report were details on the locations of all the mass relays the fleet had discovered, the systems they had mapped out, all the planets associated with those systems, and the battle involving the Council ships near the end of the mission. Some useful information had also been gleaned from the captured turian captain as well. This included details on recent galactic events, more details on the races that made up known space, and – most interestingly – information on the Systems Alliance, which was the government representing the human race in what they called the Milky Way galaxy.

This Systems Alliance had made first contact with the Council races nearly thirty years prior when they tried to activate a dormant mass relay near a planet called Shanxi. The turians attacked the Alliance ships doing this, triggering a small war on the nearby planet known as the First Contact War, or the Relay 314 Incident as it was known to the turians. Fortunately, this conflict was settled by the Council before it escalated into a full-scale war. Eight years later, the Alliance was granted an embassy on the Citadel. Nearly a decade after that, humanity gained a seat on the Council itself after a large portion of one of its fleets was sacrificed to save the Council during the Battle of the Citadel, in which the geth – apparently some type of droid race – tried to take over the station with the aid of Saren Arterius, a rogue Council agent whose massive flagship Sovereign decimated most of the defending Council ships.

While Hurkk was still scratching his head over how it was possible that humans existed in the Milky Way galaxy, the_ Executor_ arrived near the Galaxy Gate, and the admiral received a transmission telling him to personally meet Darth Vader on the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer as soon as possible. It was this upcoming meeting with the Sith Lord that made Hurkk so nervous at the moment. He'd heard the stories; he knew of Vader's very small tolerance for failure, and he was aware of what the dark lord did to those who did anything to displease him. Captain Needa and Admiral Ozzel came to mind. Hurkk just prayed that a similar fate did not befall him.

All too soon, a chime sounded as the turbolift reached his destination. Hurkk gulped with apprehension as the lift doors parted sideways. Reluctantly, he stepped out of the lift and into the security foyer located in the back of the bridge. Looking to his left, he could see the black-cloaked figure of Darth Vader staring outside the bridge viewport. Gathering all the courage he could muster, he slowly walked onto the walkway to where the Emperor's right hand was standing. The loud breathing coming from the Sith's respirator sent shivers down the admiral's spine. Before he was able to think of anything to say, the dark lord spoke.

"Admiral Hurkk," Vader said. "I was beginning to think that you didn't receive my message, considering the length of time it took you to arrive."

"Deepest apologies, my lord," Hurkk replied. "I came here as fast as I could once I received word that you wanted to speak with me." It was a lie, of course. In truth, Hurkk had spent a good half hour on the bridge of the _Leviathan _trying to figure out what Vader needed him for and what he was going to say. He couldn't think of anything he had done wrong, but the fact that Vader felt the need to speak with him in person as opposed to via a hologram was not something he saw as a good sign. If anything, it was a reason to panic, because it put him in _very _close proximity to a man known for strangling his subordinates to death over simple failures. Needless to say, this terrified him a great deal.

"Do you understand why I called you onto my ship?" Vader asked.

"No, my lord," Hurkk responded.

"I want you to personally give me an overview of your scouting fleet's encounter with the Council patrol. I read your report, but it lacked certain details. Perhaps you could do me the favor of filling them in."

"Of course, my lord." Hurkk once again swallowed before proceeding. "The fleet was situated near a mass relay that we had recently discovered. I had engineers inside the structure working to activate it so we could travel to the end point on the other side. As per the report, around 1700 hours ship-time the Council patrol came out of FTL in our area."

"Did they immediately attack the fleet after they arrived in your sector?"

"N-no, they didn't. At first they sent a transmission telling us that we were going against Council regulations in activating a dormant mass relay."

"Did you respond?"

"N-n-no, my lord. I was trying to think of a proper way to respond when their vessels approached us and readied their shield and weapon systems. It seemed as though they were going to attack, so I … I ordered our ships to open fire. The casualties are in the report: three _Tartan_-class cruisers, an _Acclamator_, a squadron of TIE fighters, and sixteen members of the boarding party led by Commander Rex. They boarded the lead cruiser and captured the commanding officer of the ship."

There was a short pause after Hurkk finished speaking. The sound of the Vader's labored breathing filled the bridge. Hurkk couldn't tell what Vader was thinking, but he tried hard not to tremble as he waited for the Sith to respond.

"That's enough, admiral," Vader finally spoke. "You've given me all the information I need."

Hurkk had to hold in a sigh of relief. He couldn't believe how easily he was getting off. "Thank you, Lord Vader," he said in a relaxed tone. "If that's everything you need, I will return to my–" As he turned to leave, he was stopped mid-sentence by a set of invisible fingers closing around his neck. The admiral gagged as he struggled to breath.

"I'm afraid you won't be leaving here, Hurkk," Vader spoke, not even bothering to turn around, reaching out with the Force to choke the admiral. His words made Hurkk's blood run cold.

"My lord, please," the choking admiral begged, his voice betraying utmost terror. "Just allow me to explain-"

"There is nothing to explain, admiral. Your fleet was ordered to engage Council forces – and _only_ to engage – if fired upon first. Instead, you ordered your forces to strike preemptively, costing Imperial lives in the process and sending us into what will no doubt become a full-scale war." Vader spoke with a certain venom in his voice that filled Hurkk's body with terror.

"But my lord, they were readying weapons and were about to attack-"

"You could have simply allayed their fears by answering their transmission," Vader practically hissed. "But no, you chose to attack. Because of your foolishness, all of our efforts to establish a foothold in the Milky Way have been compromised."

"Vader please," Hurkk rasped, barely managing to get the words out. "I'm sorry, just give me another–" He wasn't able to finish as the grip around his neck tightened. His whole body shook in horror as he felt his feet lose contact with the floor.

"You have failed me for the last time, admiral."

"My lord, please!" Hurkk struggled to get the words out as the edges of his vision started to go black. "Have mercy!"

"As you wish."

If Vader had turned around, he would have seen a small glimmer of hope in the admiral's eyes. This glimmer was quickly extinguished as the dark lord snapped his neck, killing him instantaneously. Vader released his grip on the admiral, and his lifeless body fell to the floor with a thump, his head bent at nearly a ninety-degree angle. Vader then motioned for somebody to remove the body. Two officers quickly rushed over, each grabbing and arm, and then proceeded to drag the body out of the bridge.

Vader remained where he was, his gaze never leaving the view outside of the viewport. His emotions at that moment were unreadable to the officers on the bridge, but underneath that helmet, he was deep in thought. War at this point was unavoidable; any and all Council ships would now treat the Empire with open hostility. This course of events was far from pleasing to Vader. The mistake of the late admiral would not halt the Empire's plans, however. This simply meant that now, instead of gaining a foothold in the galaxy through more peaceful means, the forces of the Empire would make their presence known by force.

* * *

**Author's Note: I apologize for this chapter's shortness, but this is mostly just filler. Hopefully in the next chapter things will pick back up. Let me just say that the Empire is about to make an impression in the Mass Effect galaxy in a big way.**

**In other news, LucasArts has announced a new Star Wars game called Star Wars 1313. Apparently it's about a bounty hunter who gets involved in a vast criminal conspiracy in the underworld of Coruscant. While it's not exactly Battlefront III, I'm excited about this news. Sounds like the kind of darker, edgier game the Star Wars franchise needs. Here's hoping it turns out to be good.**

**Please review.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: So, after a combination of procrastination, my Internet temporarily going out, and friends asking for my attention, I have **_**finally **_**posted this chapter. My deepest apologies for not posting sooner. Hopefully now that it's summer vacation I'll be able to crank out chapters at a faster rate than the snail's pace I've been going at lately. Anyway, here we go.**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

High in orbit above the volus homeworld of Irune, a large fleet of various classes of ships held defensive positions. There were fifty-five ships in total: seventeen cruisers, thirty-six frigates, and two dreadnoughts. Virtually all of the ships were turian vessels. As the volus were a client race of the turians, it fell to the Hierarchy to provide for the species' defense. This large defense fleet was assembled three weeks ago after the Citadel Council was informed of an attack on one of their scouting patrols by an unknown hostile force. This unidentified enemy completely decimated the patrol using energy weapons on their ships, and after news of this reached the Council, all of Citadel space was put on high alert. Every major planet under Council control now had fleets to protect it, and patrols were stationed at every major mass relay in Citadel space to provide advance warning of any offensive by hostile forces.

Among the many ships in orbit above the planet was the _Kwunu_, the sole dreadnought of the volus. The ship was the only one of its class, named after the volus diplomat who negotiated the species' client status with the turians. It was also heavily armed; its main gun and broadside cannons were both Thanix weapons (based off of the design of Sovereign's powerful main gun) which shot out streams of liquid metal at a fraction of light-speed. This weapon system was capable of obliterating smaller vessels with ease, and it made the vessel it was attached to an undesirable target. It had been said that the _Kwunu_ was easily capable of charring a planet three times over, so it was only natural that the dreadnought be placed in the defense of its creator's homeworld.

Inside the ship, the door to the bridge opened as the turian admiral Kres Tatrumn stepped inside. The admiral stifled a yawn as he sauntered over to the Galaxy Map, with various volus and turian officers turning from their stations to acknowledge his presence. After stepping onto the raised platform above the map, Tatrumn bent his neck back and forth, feeling his joints crack under the strain. Folding his hands behind his back, he let out a lethargic sigh.

_This is a waste of time,_ the turian thought to himself. _Three weeks of sitting in orbit above this planet and still no sign of any attack. I'm starting to think that the Council's just being paranoid. Since that attack on the patrol, there's been no trace of this enemy anywhere. This ship is one of the most powerful vessels in the fleet, it'd be much better suited to hunting down pirates and mercenaries than floating here waiting for something to show up and shoot at us._

The admiral felt another yawn coming up, and this time he didn't bother trying to suppress it, letting out a long exhale. _Maybe I'm just tired. It really isn't my place to question the Council's orders. It's not like I can do anything about it anyway. May as well stick with it. _"Lieutenant," he spoke finally to a turian stationed at a terminal in front of the Galaxy Map. "Anything to report?"

"Nothing major, admiral," the officer replied. "A cargo freighter just left the system en route to Palaven, and we received a transmission ten minutes ago from our patrol stationed at the mass relay. They say that there's no sign of any activity. Other than that, nothing sir."

"Good. Make sure to keep me posted if anything happens."

"Yes sir."

Tatrumn then turned his attention to a volus stationed on the other side of the Galaxy Map. "Ensign," he said. "What is the ship's current status?"

The volus took a loud breath before speaking. "All systems operating at full capacity, admiral," he said before taking another breath. "Shield and weapon systems are on standby."

"Excellent. Alert me if there are any changes."

The volus took another breath. "Yes admiral."

_Things are as quiet as usual,_ the admiral thought. _Maybe after another week or two of this, the Council will assume that whoever attacked the patrol isn't going to present itself as a threat, and this ship can go back to performing other duties. Then _I _can finally spend some time away from this rock._

Tatrumn's thoughts were interrupted by a turian officer stationed at a terminal on the far side of the room. "Admiral," he called out. "We're receiving a transmission. Looks like it's from the patrol."

"Patch it through," Tatrumn ordered. Following orders, the officer then played the transmission over the bridge speakers. The transmission was garbled and sporadic, but someone on the other side was shouting, from the sound of it.

"… coming under… -ack… -dentified vessels," the person in the transmission yelled. His words were unintelligible, but he sounded alarmed. "… need… -forcements… send help… gah!" The sound of an explosion was heard over the speakers, followed by static.

"Sir, we've been cut off," the officer said.

"Try to contact them again, damn it!" Tatrumn ordered. "Find out what the hell is going on over there."

"Admiral!" the turian lieutenant yelled. "We have multiple ships coming out of FTL in our sector!"

"The patrol must have been attacked and now their assailants are coming here." The admiral raised his hand to his head as he spoke to the rest of the fleet. "All vessels, this is Admiral Tatrumn. Move into defensive positions immediately. Raise shields and ready weapon systems." Tatrumn lowered his hand. "Lieutenant, how many ships do you read?"

"There's… by the spirits."

At the lieutenant's exclamation, Tatrumn looked out of the bridge viewport. What he saw caused his jaw to drop. Right in front of his eyes, a massive fleet decelerated out of FTL space. Several dozen kilometers away were easily a hundred enemy vessels of various sizes and classes. Around a dozen of those ships were extremely large, dagger-shaped craft which made the _Kwunu_ seem small by comparison. The enemy the Council had warned about had finally arrived.

"The Council was right," Tatrumn thought out loud. "Charge up shield and weapon systems now! Prepare to engage!"

"Yes admiral!" the volus ensign replied.

Tatrumn then pressed his hand against his earpiece and spoke into the comms. "This is Admiral Tatrumn, we are under attack! All ships, open fire! Launch all fighters, all frigates move in close to attack, have our cruisers cover them! These bastards are _not _going to take this planet without a fight!"

* * *

Admiral Garnick looked outside the _Leviathan_'s bridge at the force that was assembled before him. Moving into defensive positions was a defensive fleet of turian vessels, all scrambling into formation, obviously caught off guard by the suddenness of this attack. Floating in space behind the multitude of turian vessels was their target: Irune, the volus homeworld. The Imperial admiral took note of how foreign-looking the planet seemed, with its gray continents and its dark yellow oceans that supported an ammonia-based ecology. Oddly enough, he found the celestial body pleasing to look at as well.

The turian captain that had been taken prisoner after the skirmish with the Council patrol had given the Empire useful information concerning the state of the Milky Way, but had been unwilling to give up the locations of any Council planets, knowing that they would be subject to attack. Fortunately, the interrogators managed to pry from him a small device that was fitted to his arm – which he called an omni-tool – that contained some valuable data. Apparently before he was sent with the patrol to investigate the recent string of mass relay activations, his ship was stationed over Irune, the coordinates of which were recorded in the omni-tool. In light of the recent conflict with the Council and with knowledge of a Council homeworld in Imperial possession, the Emperor decided to launch an invasion of the Milky Way, and Irune would be a fitting first target to demonstrate the might of the enemy the Council now found itself at war with.

The fleet that had been assembled for the invasion consisted of around nine hundred vessels, one hundred of which were _Imperial_-class Star Destroyers. It was a relatively small portion of the vast Imperial Starfleet, but it would serve well for the purposes of the invasion. Admiral Garnick had taken command of the fleet with the _Leviathan_ as his flagship, seeing as Hurkk had been killed by Darth Vader for his previous failure. It took around a week for all the vessels to be assembled before the fleet moved through the Galaxy Gate, and once the fleet was through, a portion of it was immediately sent to invade Irune, where Garnick now found himself facing the defenses of the turians. The enemy possessed fifty-five vessels of varying classes, as opposed to the one hundred and seventeen ships in his own fleet. Garnick smiled._ We outnumber them over two to one,_ he thought. _This should be fairly simple._

"The enemy fleet is moving into position, admiral," said one of the officers in the crew pit. "They've begun launching fighters and their frigates are moving in close to engage us. Their cruisers and dreadnoughts have already begun to open fire."

"Launch all TIEs and order our _Acclamator_ and _Victory_-class ships to move in to intercept their frigates," Garnick responded. "Our Star Destroyers will stay behind and commence long-range bombardment."

"Yes, admiral."

"Once we've created a hole in their defensive line, contact General Finn and tell him to begin landing troops west of the capital. We will seize that city and then move on to the rest of the planet. Irune will be in Imperial hands by the end of the day."

"Affirmative, sir."

* * *

"Fire the main gun at the nearest dreadnought!" Tatrumn ordered. As he gave the order, the cannon located at the front of the _Kwunu _began to glow brightly. After a couple of seconds, a bright blue beam of molten metal shot out of the main gun towards one of the large, dagger-shaped vessels. The blast impacted directly on the ship's bridge tower, a large explosion completely destroying it and crippling the vessel.

"Admiral, this is Bravo Group," said a captain on the other side of the comms. "Our frigates are moving within range of hostile vessels."

"The second you're in range, fire everything you've got at those enemy ships!" Tatrumn dictated.

"Affirmative, admiral."

A long distance away from the _Kwunu_, a large group of turian frigates was quickly closing within effective range of the enemy ships. Several hostile cruisers, many of which were comparable in size to the turians' own dreadnoughts, were approaching them in kind.

"Three… two… one… open fire now!" screamed the turian captain leading the attack group. At his order, the frigates fired directly at the enemy vessels with their mass accelerator cannons, the projectiles impacting hard against their hulls, blowing out large chunks of metal. More than a few of the cruisers were blown into smithereens under the heavy fire. The remaining ships quickly returned fire with their energy weapons, scoring direct hits on the frigates' armor plating and causing it to rapidly boil away against the bolt's energy. A fair amount of frigates were destroyed completely under this onslaught.

"Their cannons are bypassing our kinetic barriers!" screamed the captain. "Taking heavy damage!"

_This isn't good,_ Tatrumn thought to himself. _At this rate, it's only a matter of time before they bypass our defenses. _"Lieutenant, send out a distress signal!" he barked. "We need reinforcements now!"

"Yes admiral!" the lieutenant responded.

* * *

Tehar Muril sat in the cockpit of his turian fighter as the enemy fleet came into view. Behind him were several dozen other fighters, following him in close formation as they accelerated towards the hostile ships. Muril double-checked the HUD system in his helmet to ensure that it was working properly before tightening his grip on the flight controls of his fighter. He was tense, to say the least. The last thing he or anyone else had expected was an attack on the system, and especially one of this size and scope. One minute he was running maintenance checks on his fighter, the next he was being ordered to lead a fighter squadron in an attack on the enemy ships. Whoever these people were, they outnumbered the turians over two to one. With that in mind, Muril had a bad feeling that this battle wasn't going to end well.

"This is Gold Leader," he spoke into the comm system. "All wings report in."

"Tarmas Wing standing by," replied one of the wing leaders.

"Arapeg Wing, all fighters green," sounded another.

"Frepitus Wing, ready for action," another spoke.

"Vyrik Wing, all pilots accounted for," answered the last wing leader.

"Stand by ready to engage," Muril ordered. "Commence bombing run on enemy ships in sector one eight."

"Copy, Gold Leader. Staying in attack formation."

As the turian squadron drew closer to their targets, a large swarm of fighters appeared, heading right towards them. Muril's targeting computer zoomed in on the fighters, allowing him to make out some of their prominent features. Most of the fighters appeared to consist of a pair of octagonal wings attached to a spherical cockpit, while some of the fighters had wings that were more arrow-shaped while keeping the same cockpit. The computer counted at least seventy craft closing in on them fast.

"Multiple enemy fighters incoming!" Muril alerted. "Break formation and fly between them, stay on route to the targets!"

"Roger that, Gold Leader," a wing leader responded. "Breaking formation."

The turian attack formation broke apart as the enemy fighters moved in to attack. Muril swerved his fighter in several directions to avoid the incoming energy bolts as he fired his cannons at the hostiles, destroying a few of them. Several other fighters were obliterated as his wing mates opened fire as well. The swarm of fighters just kept coming, and soon Muril found himself jerking on his controls to avoid colliding with the enemy craft. Explosions occurred all around him as ships on both sides were destroyed, rocking Muril's cockpit. The radar display integrated into his HUD was crowded with green and red dots, representing friendly and hostile fighters, respectively. Dots were blinking out of the display by the second, and Muril noticed that the enemy ships were taking a good deal more casualties than the fighters in his squadron, though they continued to swarm around his wing mates due to their sheer numbers. Eventually, the wave of enemy fighters passed by the squadron, leaving them with a clear shot at the enemy cruisers.

"Muril, we took some heavy losses back there!" called out one of the pilots, alarmed. "About a quarter of our fighters are toast!"

"Stow it, pilot!" Muril barked. "Calm yourself. All fighters regroup, accelerate to attack speed."

"Acknowledged, Gold Leader," replied another pilot.

The remaining turian fighters flew back into formation, though a significant portion of them were now gone. As they accelerated towards the enemy ships, the fighters broke up into four separate groups, each of which flew towards a separate cruiser. The ships' point-defense guns opened fire on the turian ships, picking off a few of them as they drew closer to their targets.

"Almost there… fire!" Muril ordered, flipping a switch on his controls as he did so. His fighter unleashed a volley of disruptor torpedoes at the cruiser he was targeting, and the other fighters followed suit and unloaded their own payload of torpedoes. Muril and the other fighters pulled up as the torpedoes' thrusters ignited and their mass effect fields activated. The torpedoes impacted directly on the ship's hull, the mass effect fields creating large warps in space time. The large, sudden mass changes were too much for the cruiser to handle, and it was quickly torn apart, with large explosions emanating from the vessel which ripped it to shreds. The turian equivalent of a smile crossed over Muril's face, which was hidden under his helmet. Nearby, three other cruisers were obliterated, having suffered the same fate as the first.

"Targets destroyed," Muril announced. "Excellent work, everybody."

"Gold Leader, this is Admiral Tatrumn," said a voice over the radio. "Do you copy?"

"Roger admiral. Targets in sector one eight have been neutralized."

"Good work, but I need your squadron to circle back here now! Enemy fighters are swarming the cruisers, we need support!"

"Copy that admiral. We're circling back now, hang tight."

"Much appreciated, now hurry!"

With that, Muril yanked on the controls, turning his fighter around so that he was facing the turian fleet. In the distance he could see swarms of hostile fighters around the defense fleet's ships, with small explosions occurring close to the vessels as the fighters were shot down by friendly craft or the cruisers' GARDIAN fire.

"All wings form up on me," he ordered to the squadron. "We're going back to provide fighter support for the cruisers."

"Copy Gold Leader," answered a pilot. "Forming up on you."

The turian fighters that remained quickly regrouped, falling back into formation behind Muril. The fighters' thrusters lit up as the craft accelerated, heading back to the fleet at top speed.

* * *

"Fire!" Tatrumn yelled at his subordinates. Once those words were spoken, the _Kwunu_'s main Thanix cannon once again fired, this time at one of the enemy cruisers. A single hit tore right through the hull of the vessel, and it was almost immediately consumed in a large explosion. Around the large dreadnought, the fleet's cruisers were firing at the enemy with their main cannons. High velocity slugs hit tore through the enemy ships' shields, causing massive amounts of damage on impact. In return, the hostile fleet fired with their energy weapons, which bypassed the turian's kinetic barriers completely and burned through the hulls of the cruisers. Tatrumn had to shield his eyes from an explosion as one of the nearby cruisers was destroyed under the barrage of heavy fire.

"Lieutenant!" the admiral shouted. "What's the status of those reinforcements?"

"We haven't received any return transmissions, admiral," the lieutenant responded, his voice betraying his anxiety. "The enemy might be jamming our long range comms."

"Damn it! Keep trying to get a secure connection, we'll hold off as long as we can!"

"Yes sir!"

"Main cannon is charged and ready!" called out the volus ensign, inhaling as he did so.

"Open fire on another one of the dreadnoughts!" the admiral barked. The main cannon of the _Kwunu _glowed brightly once again as it fired at another of the dagger-shaped ships. The beam struck the bottom of the ship in the hangar bay, blasting straight through the vessel and causing a significant amount of damage. However, the battle taking place around the _Kwunu _was not going in the defenders' favor. In the distance, most of the turians' frigates were destroyed, and the enemy fleet was quickly closing in. Hostile fighters were seen flying amongst friendly ones outside the bridge, with a few occasionally being shot down by GARDIAN laser fire. There were simply too many for them to all be destroyed, however. Tatrumn watched as a wing of hostile bombers swarmed another nearby cruiser, unleashing their payload on the ship, which was quickly annihilated in another explosion.

_There's just too many of them, _Tatrumn thought. _We're getting ripped apart. I don't know how much longer we can hold out. _"Fire the main cannon again at the damaged dreadnought!" he yelled. "Finish it off!"

* * *

Garnick watched from the _Leviathan_'s bridge as the enemy dreadnought charged up its main gun. A bright blue beam shot out of the ship's cannon after a couple of seconds and impacted against a Star Destroyer that had already been damaged by the weapon. The beam impacted directly on the ship's hull, and a massive explosion followed which tore the Star Destroyer apart. Garnick had to shield his eyes from the intensity of the explosion.

"Sir!" called one of the officers in the crew pits. "That's the second Star Destroyer that enemy dreadnought has taken out! If that main gun hits us, we're done for!"

"Order our Star Destroyers to concentrate fire on that dreadnought!" Garnick ordered. "I want that thing taken out before it destroys any more of our ships!" Once that order was given, the remaining Star Destroyers all opened fire on the dreadnought with heavy turbolaser fire. Garnick smirked as several blasts impacted all across the ship's hull, boiling away the metal plating.

* * *

The whole bridge shook violently as enemy fire impacted against the _Kwunu_'s hull. Sparks flew from the consoles all over the room, and a couple even exploded, killing the crewmen behind them. Several of the officers were falling flat on the floor.

"Damage report!" shouted Tatrumn as he picked himself up off of his knees.

"All systems have suffered critical damage!" replied the volus ensign, who quickly inhaled before speaking again. "Shields disabled!" Another sharp breath. "Weapon systems offline!"

A large explosion engulfed the right half of the bridge, killing several turian and volus officers. Their bodies flew across the bridge in pieces, and the floor was covered in blood. Tatrumn's eyes widened in shock and disbelief at what was occurring.

"Sir!" cried the turian lieutenant in panic. "Hull integrity at twenty-seven percent! We can't take much more!"

The turian admiral just stood there, not saying a word. The look on his face was one of utter horror as he realized that they were all doomed. _This can't be happening,_ he thought. _Not me, not this ship!_ Another large explosion tore across the bridge, and the admiral was sent flying to the other side of the room. His entire body ached in pain as he hit the ground. His body screamed in agony as he lifted his head up and looked at the scene before him. The entire bridge was in shambles; the Galaxy Map display was no longer functioning, the display and the surrounding terminals now twisted shrapnel. Fires burned all across the room. Spread out across the floor were multiple turian and volus bodies, their bodies burnt, bleeding, and/or in pieces everywhere. The sight of so much blood made the admiral sick to his stomach.

Tatrumn's stomach turned as he looked down at his own body. The lower half of his left leg wasn't there anymore, and the stump that remained was bleeding onto the floor. His right leg was mangled, bleeding profusely, and covered in bits of shrapnel. He lifted up his hands; they were nothing but torn pieces of flesh, the muscles and tendons exposed, barely holding together. He could feel his own blood dripping from his face, some of it coming into his mouth.

_By the spirits, no,_ he thought. That was the last thing that entered into his mind as another explosion on the bridge tore through his body.

* * *

Admiral Garnick smiled in satisfaction as the enemy dreadnought was consumed in a fiery explosion, large pieces of it flying in every direction, some even hitting and damaging the nearby cruisers. Pulling his eyes away from the dying vessel, he took a good look at the situation around him. Almost all of the enemy ships were either severely damaged or flying debris in orbit above the planet. The rest were making a full retreat, with several Imperial frigates in pursuit. A small frown formed on the admiral's lips as he noticed more than a few Imperial vessels among the wreckage. His slight anger at that dissipated quickly however as he regained his composure.

"Ensign," he called out. "Status report."

"The enemy fleet is in ruins, admiral," responded the ensign from the crew pit. "It appears that the destruction of that dreadnought has caused the remaining ships to scatter. It must have been their flagship. Our frigates are in full pursuit of the retreating ships."

"What are our casualties?"

"We've lost thirty-one ships, sir, two of them _Imperial_-class. A couple dozen other vessels have sustained moderate to severe damage."

"Are our forces still in capacity to carry out the planetary assault?"

"Yes admiral. General Finn is on standby waiting for your orders to deploy the ground army. We have a straight shot at the capital."

"Excellent. Tell Finn that once we are in orbital position, he may begin deploying troops immediately."

"At once, sir."

Garnick folded his arms behind his back, taking in the full view of the planet that lay before him. _The Council will now know the wrath that it has brought upon itself,_ the admiral thought quietly to himself, smiling once again. _Soon, this planet will be in Imperial possession, and the Citadel will tremble before the full might of the Empire._

* * *

**Author's Note: So now the Empire has invaded and it looks like things have gone to shit for the turians. Hopefully this humongous battle scene makes up for me not updating in so long. Once again, I apologize for the length of time it took me to update. I'll try to be better about cranking out chapters in the future. In the meantime, please review.**

**Edit 6/25: One reviewer, Leaf Ranger, felt that the space battle between the turians and the Empire felt too rushed; that it felt as though the Imperials overwhelmed the planetary defenses in minutes, and suggested making the battle longer to make it feel like the turians were putting up more of a fight. In response to this totally valid criticism, I have expanded upon the space battle somewhat. Just want to let everyone know that I am completely open to adjusting my work if someone has a gripe or offers a suggestion that I feel is valid. Please don't be afraid to offer constructive criticism, as it's the only way I'll learn. Anyway, I hope this extended chapter is to everyone's liking.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: I'M BACK! Yes, I've finally managed to get chapter 11 posted. Hope it meets everybody's expectations. If not, go ahead and complain, that's what the review button is for. Also, for those of you who still don't know, I went back to chapter 10 and expanded upon the space battle to make it seem less rushed. The chapter is now updated and much longer, so those of you who haven't seen it may want to go back and read my "extended cut." Go ahead, I'll wait.**

**You're back? Good, let's get on with it.**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

Tarquin Victus carefully advanced along one side of a narrow gorge, his squad mates not far behind him. It was eerily quiet as the squad of eight turians walked through the canyon. Victus continuously turned his head back and forth, keeping an eye out for any sign of hostiles. As he slowly crept forward, the rock wall to his left, he once again checked to make sure his helmet was sealed; turians couldn't breathe in Irune's atmosphere, so he and his squad had to wear sealed suits for their mission.

The turians' fleet above Irune had been all but annihilated by the invading forces, and now there was nothing keeping them from putting forces on the ground. Soon enough, they were doing just that; a number of transports were spotted touching down not far from the capital of Lenos, and command needed intel on what they were dropping off. Lieutenant Victus volunteered to lead a squad from the Ninth Platoon on a scouting mission to find out what kind of troops the enemy was sending their way. The scouting party had been navigating through a series of rocky outcroppings for the past hour, careful to hide their presence. So far they had yet to encounter any hostiles.

"How much farther do you think we have to go?" asked one of the squad mates following Victus.

"Shouldn't be too much longer," the lieutenant responded, activating his omni-tool as he did so. "According to our intel, the enemy landing zone is about one-point-five klicks southwest of our position. We should get a decent view from that spot up ahead."

"I still can't believe we're being attacked," remarked another one of the squad members. "Just where the hell did these guys come from anyway?"

"You're asking the wrong person, private. I'm just as much in the dark as you are."

"My money's on the Alliance," said another turian. "Reports from three weeks back said that the ones who attacked the patrol were humans. Who else would have access to military-grade tech?"

"Don't jump to conclusions like that," the private replied. "There's no way in hell the Alliance would attack another Council race. They'd have too much to lose and too little to gain. It could be Cerberus, or even someone else entirely."

"Did you _see_ the size of those dreadnoughts in orbit? Cerberus doesn't have nearly enough resources to build something like that, let alone a whole fleet."

"And the Alliance does? Face it, you're just being prejudiced. Shanxi was thirty years ago, let the attitude die."

"No, I'm _not_ just going to 'let it die!' Humanity's been too ambitious from the start; they've always been out to put themselves in charge of everybody else. First the embassy, then the Council seat, this is just another step up for them!"

"Knock it off you two, that's an order!" barked Victus. "We don't know who these people are yet, and right now it doesn't matter. What _does _matter is getting the intel we need for our forces to put up a defense. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," the two soldiers responded in unison.

"Good. Now come on, we're almost there."

The squad continued to walk down the gorge until they came to the edge of a cliff. Victus signaled for the rest of the squad to halt before turning to the private, motioning for him to follow. As they neared the edge, the two soldiers lowered into prone positions, then proceeded to crawl over to the edge, peeking their heads out to get a good view of the area. Out in the distance were at least two dozen large dropships, several of which could be seen unloading troops. Victus' eyes widened at the sight of what looked like a large mech slowly walking out of one of the transports. He used his helmet to zoom in and get a better look. The mech consisted of a large grey body held high above the ground by four legs. A large head was attached to the main body of the mech, on which were what looked like large cannons that contributed to the overall menacing look. The mech towered above the white-armored troopers on the ground, as well as several smaller, two-legged mechs that walked past it. Looking around the landing area, Victus could see several more of the larger mechs, either unloading from the dropships or already deployed.

"By the spirits," exclaimed the private. "How the hell are we supposed to defend against _that_?"

"Let's hope command can figure something out," replied the lieutenant, who then raised his hand to his helmet as he radioed his superiors. "Come in command, this is Lieutenant Tarquin Victus. We have eyes on the enemy landing area. Do you read?"

"We copy, lieutenant," a voice on the comms responded. "What are you seeing?"

"Around two dozen transports worth of hostile troops. They're deploying mechs. Big ones."

"Specify."

"I'm looking at maybe a dozen four-legged walkers, around twenty meters in height carrying heavy weapons. They look like assault vehicles, or maybe troop transports."

"Copy that. What else do you see, lieutenant?"

"I see a bunch of smaller, two-legged walkers surrounding the larger ones. There's also a large amount of what appear to be hover tanks, and plenty of ground troops. Looks like they're gearing up for a major offensive."

"Give us a visual feed, let us see what's going on ourselves."

"Acknowledged." Victus activated his omni-tool and punched in a few commands, setting his helmet to transmit live video back to his superiors. "Transmitting visual now."

"Received. Damn. Looks like you were right, the enemy is definitely preparing for an attack on the capital."

"What are your orders?"

"We have teams working to get the planetary defense cannons online. Once they're operational, we should be able to prevent the enemy from landing any more troops. We'll also gather any air assets we have left to hit this strike force while they're still far from the city. As for your squad, go on and make your way back to the extraction zone for evac. You'll receive new orders once a dropship has picked you up."

"Understood, command. Victus out." Victus then cut the link with command and turned to face the turian next to him. "Come on, let's head back to the LZ."

"Yes, sir," the soldier responded. With that, the two of them stood back up and turned to face the rest of the squad. Victus looked back again, getting one last look at the enemy force assembled in the valley before him. The sheer scale of what they were dealing with dawned on him. He wasn't sure how command was prepared to face this formidable foe. Shaking the thoughts from his head for the moment, he turned back to his squad and proceeded to follow them back through the narrow gorge.

_I have a bad feeling about this,_ he thought.

* * *

Muril let out a long sigh as his fighter entered the planet's atmosphere. _This day just keeps getting better, doesn't it?_, he thought to himself sarcastically. _The fleet is in shambles, the admiral's dead, long range comms are out, and now we've got hostile ground units near Lenos. Next command will be telling me the enemy's got a gun that can blow up the whole damn planet, then we'll _all_ be hammered… or whatever that human expression is._

After the _Kwunu_'s destruction, Muril and the remainder of his fighter squadron retreated to the far side of the planet with what was left of the fleet. They had taken heavy casualties from the swarms of enemy craft; about a wing's worth of fighters were destroyed before the squadron was ordered to fall back. Shortly after that, Muril had gotten word that the enemy had landed troops west of Lenos, and that his squadron was being ordered to partake in an airstrike against the hostile ground army, which had already landed before allied forces managed to get the defense cannons operational. Having had time to catch his breath, he gathered up the remaining ships under his command and was now heading to the coordinates where the army was located on the surface.

"All remaining fighters accounted for, Gold Leader," called out one of the pilots over the comms.

"Roger that, pilot," Muril replied. "All ships stay in formation, prepare to commence airstrike at predetermined coordinates."

"Understood, Gold Leader. Staying in formation."

The fighter squadron descended into the planet's atmosphere and was soon zooming high above the surface. As the craft accelerated towards their target, Muril could make out large shapes in the distance that vaguely resembled four-legged animals. His targeting computer zoomed in on these shapes, which were seen to be large grey walkers that were raised high above the ground, slowly lumbering along with the rest of the army. Muril had been briefed beforehand about the large mechs that the enemy had deployed, but he was still slightly caught off guard by the sheer size of the mechanical behemoths. Still, he kept his focus and re-centered his mind on the task at hand.

"Target in sight," he announced. "Commencing airstrike, all craft engage!"

Muril held down the trigger on his fighter controls, firing his cannons at one of the large mechs. The fighters following him did the same, their weapons impacting on several of the larger mechs, as well as some of the smaller two-legged mechs and a few hover tanks. The tanks and small walkers were destroyed by the heavy fire, but the large mechs seemed to suffer little damage. In response to this assault, the walkers turned their heads toward the incoming fighter squadron and opened fire with cannons that seemed to be attached to their chins. Muril barely dodged an incoming energy blast, followed by another. His radar indicated a few of his fellow pilots being blasted away by the walkers' cannons.

"Gold Leader, it doesn't look like that barrage did anything to those walkers!" exclaimed one of the pilots as the squadron passed over the enemy forces. "Against that armor, it's like we were firing spitballs!"

"Calm down pilot," Muril replied. "Everyone regroup and circle back around for another run, approach from behind where they can't fire at us!"

"Roger that," another pilot acknowledged.

Muril swerved his fighter around to face the enemy army once more, his fellow pilots doing the same. This time, the squadron was approaching from behind the large walkers; from there, the walkers' heads couldn't turn around to fire at them.

_Kind of an obvious design flaw_, Muril mused. _You'd think they'd have designed a walker like that with guns that pointed in a direction other than "straight forward."_ Pushing away his thoughts for the moment, Muril resumed fire on one of the walkers, striking multiple points along the gray metal body to seemingly no effect. As he continued to fire at the mech, one of the shots from his cannon struck it in the neck connecting the head to the body. A chuck of metal was blown from the point of impact, catching Muril by surprise. Quickly refocusing, he fired two more shots at the neck area, causing an explosion to emanate from it. The head was completely severed from the body and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Seconds afterward, the massive walker tilted to one side and toppled over, impacting against the ground and crushing a hover tank caught underneath its colossal weight.

"It's the neck!" he yelled into the comms as the squadron passed over the army once again. "The neck is the walker's weak point! All craft circle around and reengage, aim just behind the head; that should take it down!"

"Copy Gold Leader," a pilot responded. Once more, the squadron circled around to face their target, firing their weapons at the enemy.

* * *

"Make sure that those suits of yours are sealed, men," Cody barked to his subordinates. "Remember, we can't breathe in this atmosphere."

Commander Cody stood in the troop bay of an Imperial Dropship Transport with a dozen other stormtroopers. The IDT was speeding towards Irune's surface, ready to deploy the squad in enemy territory for their high-risk assignment. The troopers all had oxygen tanks attached to their backs and were loading energy packs into their blasters. Some of them were double-checking their helmets to ensure that there were no ruptures in the air-tight seal, which would be fatal in Irune's high-pressure environment. Cody stood to the side, his expression unreadable underneath his helmet, giving off an air of authority to his underlings. Suddenly his comlink beeped, prompting him to take it out and activate it. The small blue hologram of a man in an officer's uniform materialized in the commander's hand.

"General Finn," Cody said. "We're almost at the planet's surface. My squad is ready for a full debrief."

"Of course, commander," Finn replied. As he spoke the other troopers turned their heads towards the blue projection of the general, paying close attention. "We wouldn't want you and your men sent on this crucial assignment without full knowledge of the situation. As you are probably aware, the ground force we sent to attack the capital of Lenos has come under heavy fire from the turians' fighter squadrons. We tried sending TIEs to clear the air, but they are currently being intercepted by what's left of the defense fleet. They're picking our fighters out of the skies."

"We've got Star Destroyers out in orbit. Can't we just send them in to deal with those ships?"

"Unfortunately, shortly after the ground army touched down, the turians activated a pair of large mass accelerator cannons. All the vessels we sent didn't have the chance to get within range before the cannons fired at them. One of our Star Destroyers has already suffered heavy damage."

"I'm surprised the turians didn't get those cannons online before we landed the army," one of the troopers stated. "Would've made things a hell of a lot simpler for them."

"They obviously didn't anticipate that anything would make it past the defense fleet, and didn't have time to activate the defense cannons before our troops landed," replied Finn. "That's beside the point, though. What matters is that as long as those cannons are operational, our ships can't move in and our troops cannot receive any air support."

"So we take out those guns and the ships are free to move in," Cody said, already realizing what the plan was.

"Precisely, commander. The dropship should already be en route to one of the defense cannons, and we're deploying a second team to deal with the other one. Your objective is simple: neutralize that cannon by any means necessary."

"Understood, general. Consider that gun a heap of scrap metal."

"Excellent. The LZ is about a klick south of the gun's position. The way there shouldn't be too difficult, but expect heavy resistance at the gun position."

"Acknowledged, general. Cody out." Cody then deactivated the comlink and put it back in a pouch on his belt.

"This'll be just like Ryloth, huh commander?" remarked Boil, a stormtrooper standing to Cody's left.

"Yeah Boil, just like old times," Cody replied. Boil was one of the few remaining Fett clones in the Imperial military, much like Cody himself, and the two had served together on multiple occasions since the Clone Wars. In fact, during said war the two had partaken in an operation on Ryloth under Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi to take out a set of Separatist AA guns that were preventing Republic forces from landing on the planet, a situation reminiscent of the one they were facing now. Boil had proven himself to be a very capable soldier over all the years he served under Cody's command, and as a clone, the commander respected him a lot more than the rest of the troopers in his current squad. He had always found those that had been recruited into the stormtrooper ranks to be far less effective than the Fett clones, so much so that he sometimes felt the urge to strangle one of them for their incompetence.

"We're about thirty seconds out from the LZ, commander," radioed the pilot from the cockpit.

"Roger that, pilot," Cody responded. "Men, ready your weapons and prepare to unload!"

The IDT continued to accelerate towards the landing zone, where a group of turians on the ground were readying defensive positions, one of them manning a stationary turret. The turret swiveled towards the incoming dropship and opened fire with a hail of high-velocity rounds. The dropship swerved to evade the incoming fire, launching a pair of missiles as it did so. One of the missiles hit the turret directly, obliterating it and killing the soldier manning it. The other missile exploded in the midst of the turians, sending several of them flying and causing the rest to scatter. As the dropship arrived at the LZ, it turned to its side and opened its side door, revealing Cody and several stormtroopers standing by with blasters at the ready.

"Open fire!" Cody ordered. At that order, the troopers standing by the edge of the dropship all fired their weapons at the remaining hostiles. The turians attempted to regroup and return fire, but the stormtroopers cut them down with their blasters before they got the chance. As the last enemy fell, the dropship lowered until it was hovering just a couple of feet above the ground.

"Everybody out!" the commander yelled. "Go, go, go!" Almost immediately, the squad piled out of the dropship and spread out across the LZ, quickly setting up a perimeter around the immediate area. Cody put his hand to the side of his helmet as he put the dropship pilot on the comm. "Fall back, pilot. We'll radio for evac after we've dealt with that defense cannon."

"Roger that, commander," the pilot responded. Shortly after, the IDT slowly rose higher above the ground, then turned and flew off with Cody passively observing. Out in the distance, he could make out the familiar shapes of Imperial AT-ATs, with a multitude of small dots – representing the turian fighters – flying around them, explosions visible in the sky surrounding the battle. Cody turned away from the view to face his men once more.

"Alright people, we have no time to waste," the commander proclaimed. "Everybody form up. Boil, keep an eye on our six."

"Understood, commander," Boil replied.

"Okay then, everybody move up!" Cody then readied his blaster rifle and moved forward past the squad. The troopers all proceeded to follow Cody, with Boil taking up the rear. The stormtroopers marched north in the direction of the cannon, while the battle going on in the distance continued to intensify.

* * *

**Author's Note: I have a feeling I'm going to be kind of slow to update with this story, partly because I take my time with this stuff, but mostly because I get distracted with other things. Considering how long I plan on making this story, this is going to take a **_**long **_**time to finish. Oh well, I settled in for the long haul when I posted this, so I may as well not rush it.**

**In other news, BioWare released the Extended Cut for Mass Effect 3 a while back, which has expanded upon the original crappy ending(s). As I don't have Xbox Live, I watched all the endings on YouTube. What do I think? Personally, while the Extended Cut doesn't make the endings perfect (that'd be asking the impossible from BioWare), it does explain the choices and expands upon post-game events in such a way that I feel satisfied with it. I'm glad that they changed the whole "destruction of the relays" bit so that you don't end up destroying all galactic civilization, and it's clear that the relays can (and presumably do) get repaired. It's also great that the Normandy isn't stranded, and it's clear that the crew, as well as the galaxy, actually has a future after the whole thing is over. **

**But that's just my opinion; I'm curious what my readers think. There's a new poll on my profile asking people if they were satisfied with the Extended Cut. If you haven't seen the Extended Cut, were satisfied with the original endings (very few of you should be), or don't play Mass Effect, please refrain from voting on it. Just answer "yes" or "no" to this, I kept it simple. If you want to talk more in-depth about it, you can send me a PM with your thoughts.**

**Let's see, what else? Oh yeah, please review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Holy crap, it's been months since I've updated this thing. This is hands down the worst delay between chapters I've ever had. It especially sucks because much of this chapter had already been written down for that long and I just never got around to finishing it. DinoJake has nothing on my laziness (If you don't know who that is, he's the author of a Halo/Mass Effect crossover called The Last Spartan; it's pretty good and I'd recommend checking it out).**

**Well, everybody's probably been waiting for long enough, so let's get to it. **

* * *

**Chapter 12**

The turian sergeant stood authoritatively among his men, keeping a sharp vigil over his subordinates. Around him, his fellow soldiers were checking their weapons, setting up defensive barricades, and taking stock of their surroundings. To his left and right, two turians were manning a pair of heavy turrets, ready to open fire at a moment's notice. Peeling his eyes away from his men for the moment, the sergeant turned around and looked in the distance behind him; a few hundred yards away was a large mass accelerator cannon, aimed toward the sky and prepared to shoot down any ship that got within its range. Directly behind the sergeant was a set of stairs leading downward into the rock, and at the bottom of the stairs was a metal door. Behind the door was the underground passageway which led to the defense cannon's generator.

Shortly after a team of engineers managed to get this particular cannon operational, the sergeant and his men were stationed at the entrance to the underground generator in order to guard it from enemies. That was roughly an hour ago, and so far there were no signs of any hostiles. Nevertheless, the sergeant was still on edge. With the current situation, how couldn't he be?

"Sergeant," a voice spoke from behind. The officer turned around to see an armored turian facing him.

"Corporal," the sergeant acknowledged. "Give me your report."

"No sign of any hostiles at the moment, but we've lost contact with one of our teams to the south. It's been twenty minutes since they last reported in, and all we got was silence when we tried to hail them just now."

"I thought we agreed on regular status updates every ten minutes. You're just _now _telling me this?" One could tell by his tone of voice that the sergeant was irritated.

"Um… well, we assumed that it was simply radio interference and – "

"Corporal, the Hierarchy doesn't pay you for you to _assume _anything about a situation! In fact, I'm pretty sure there's an old human saying about that."

"Sorry, sir! Won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't. Get a squad and head to that outpost to see what the hell's going on over there. Assume hostile presence."

"Yes sir."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Move!"

The corporal hurriedly marched off after receiving his orders, wanting to avoid further chastisement. Shaking his head, the sergeant turned and walked in the other direction. He needed to go check on supplies anyhow, a welcome distraction from the hell going on elsewhere. As the sergeant walked to the other side of the outpost, he did not notice a curious presence on the nearby ridge. High above the area and hardly noticeable was a small spherical drone hovering just a few feet off the ground. For several minutes it floated there, nobody even noticing that it was there. And then, with a few quiet beeps, the drone spun around and sped away from outpost and out of sight.

* * *

"Commander, how much longer do we have to sit here?" one of the stormtroopers complained. "It feels like we're just wasting time."

"I already told you, private," Cody responded irritably. "We don't go anywhere until the recon droid gets back. Once we're certain that we're not walking straight into an ambush, we'll go."

Cody and his fellow stormtroopers were currently situated next to a large outcropping, and several of the white-armored troopers were sitting down checking their equipment. The commander had sent a couple of his men further ahead to serve as lookouts. The squad was roughly a quarter of a click away from the AA position, and was currently resting and waiting on the return of a recon droid that had been sent ahead to scout out the area.

"With all due respect," the private continued, "the longer we sit here, the more men we lose to those fighters pounding our forces out there."

"And if we all get killed, we're not going to be helping that situation, will we?" Cody replied. "I'm the commander here, and what I say goes, so shut up and follow orders. Understood?"

The private let out a defeated sigh. "Yes sir."

_By the Force, I hate these recruits, _Cody thought to himself. _They're a bunch of incompetent fools, all of them. Nowhere near as effective as the old GAR. I'd sacrifice this entire squad save for Boil just to get one genuine clone trooper. It'd save me a lot of headaches._

Cody was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of one of the lookouts calling in over the radio. "Commander," he said. "The recon droid is coming back."

"Roger that," Cody replied.

Less than thirty seconds later, Cody could see the spherical silhouette of the recon droid rise above the nearby hill. The small droid sped over to the stormtrooper squad, coming to a halt right in front of Cody. Hovering a few feet off the ground, the droid shone a hologram in front of the commander. It was a layout of the nearby turian defense position.

"Okay, let's see what we've got here," Cody said, mostly to himself. "Looks like a well-defended position. Plenty of barricades, around two dozen turians."

"They've got a couple of defensive turrets up as well," Boil, who was standing to Cody's right, added.

"Those are going to be a problem if we don't take them out fast. Here." Cody pointed his finger at a ridge overlooking the area. "A few troopers can get up on that ridge. A couple well-placed rockets will deal with those turrets quickly."

"That ridge will also make for a good sniping position. Look, there's something behind those turrets." Boil pointed to something behind the turret positions. It looked like a staircase leading downward into the rock.

"Looks like a passage underground."

"Any idea where it goes?"

"This position is pretty close to the defense cannon, and it's pretty heavily guarded. If I were to wager a guess, I'd say the generator for that gun must run underground, and that passageway leads right to it."

"Sounds about right. So we go in, hook some charges up to that generator, head back up to the surface and blow it to hell?"

"That's the plan. We'll send some troopers up onto that ridge to take out the turrets and give us some covering fire. The rest of us will attack head on."

"Got it, boss."

Cody raised his hand to his helmet as his comlink went off. "Commander, we've got a patrol inbound from the north," radioed one of the lookouts.

"How many hostiles?" Cody asked.

"Around half a dozen. They haven't spotted us, but they'll be on your position within a couple of minutes."

"Acknowledged, trooper." Cody deactivated his comlink as he turned to address his underlings. "We're too exposed out here; everybody behind those rocks, now!"

The stormtroopers swiftly obeyed their commander's orders, scurrying to take cover behind a bunch of large boulders. Once he was behind one of the boulders, Cody turned his attention to the blaster rifle he was currently carrying, slapping in a fresh energy pack and flipping off the safety. A minute passed in silence before Cody's comlink went off again.

"The patrol is about fifty meters from your position, commander," the lookout said. This prompted Cody to peek his head around the boulder he was behind. Sure enough, coming up over the nearby hill was a six-man turian squad, carrying an assortment of assault rifles and shotguns. Upon seeing them, Cody brought his head out of sight.

"If they spot us, they might alert the outpost ahead that we're here," Cody whispered over the comms. "We'll have to surprise them; take them out before they have a chance to radio for backup. Blasters at the ready, everyone."

"Understood, commander," Boil answered.

Cody could feel his heart pounding in his chest as the seconds ticked by. He tightened his grip on his blaster as the turians drew closer to their position. After what felt like minutes, Cody could hear the sound of footsteps fairly close, the ground crunching underneath the turians' boots.

"Now!" Cody yelled. Like a coiled spring, Cody leapt from his hiding place and turned to fire at the turian squad. The other ten troopers with him did so simultaneously, sending a hail of red energy bolts at the patrol. A couple of the turians tried to raise their weapons to fire back, but they were all gunned down swiftly underneath the onslaught. Within a few seconds, all the turians lay dead on the ground, their armor smoking and charred from the heat of the blasters.

"Clear," Cody affirmed, lowering his weapon. The rest of the squad emerged from their hiding places.

"All hostiles confirmed dead," one of the lookouts confirmed over the radio. "Doesn't look like the turians are sending any more out. Nice work, commander."

"We're heading out," Cody replied, not acknowledging the other trooper's compliment. "Rendezvous with us at the gun position. Stay out of sight."

"Will do, sir."

As the comlink cut off, Cody turned to his squad. "No use standing around here any longer. Move out."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Boil was nearing the ridge that overlooked the turian outpost. He had volunteered to link up with the lookouts on the ridge while Cody led the rest of the squad in a frontal assault on the enemy. He kept a firm grip on his E-11s sniper rifle as he slowly crept to the ridge. Walking up an incline to the top, he saw the two lookouts – wearing standard scout trooper armor – in prone positions overlooking the turian position. They were both holding rocket launchers at the moment, and there were two sniper rifles lying between them as well.

"Nice of you to join us, Boil," one of the troopers said jokingly.

"I was just admiring the scenery, lieutenant," Boil joked in kind.

"The commander just radioed. He and the others are in cover positions in some rocks to our left. Turians don't know we're here, so we've got the element of surprise."

"Well then let's have a look, shall we?"

Boil then went into a prone position and crawled to the edge of the ridge right beside one of the scout troopers. He brought his sniper rifle out in front of him and looked through the scope. Sure enough, the turian soldiers below them were busy checking weapons and ammo supplies, setting up barricades, and monitoring comm traffic. Boil saw two soldiers manning a pair of turrets, just like in the hologram they reviewed earlier. The turians had absolutely no idea that they were being watched.

"Are those rocket launchers loaded, trooper?" Boil asked.

"Loaded and ready to fire, sir," the scout answered.

"Then get ready for action, boys. This is where the fun begins."

* * *

Cody poked his head out from behind the rock he was using as cover to look ahead. In front of him was the turian outpost that guarded the underground generator for the defense cannon, which was highly visible in the distance. He could see the turians walking around, attending to their duties and seemingly oblivious to his presence.

_Guess they haven't figured out their scouts were taken out,_ Cody thought. _Looks like we've got the jump on them. _Cody ducked back behind his cover to avoid detection and glanced behind him. Nine of his men were nearby, having taken up cover positions behind some rocks just as he had. Despite their faces being unreadable behind their helmets, Cody could tell by their body language that they were tense, and a couple seemed downright nervous. _Blasted recruits. Can't even keep their nerves in check during a mission._

"Commander, this is Boil," said a voice over the comlink. "I'm with the lookouts and we're currently on the ridge. Just give the order to raise hell and we'll lay down some covering fire."

"Roger that, Boil," the commander replied. "Wait for my go, and then take out those turrets; that's your first priority. My team will engage from the front while you give us support."

"Acknowledged."

As the comlink cut off, Cody peeked over his cover again to see what they were up against. The two defensive turrets were currently manned, though they wouldn't be a problem for long. There looked to be roughly eighteen soldiers; the hologram that Cody saw before indicated that there were two dozen, but with the stormtroopers having killed the six-man scouting party before, these were what remained.

_We're outnumbered still_, Cody thought. _But we've got the element of surprise._

"Blasters at the ready, men," Cody said to those that were with him. The troopers tightened their grips on their weapons, and a couple slapped in fresh energy packs. Cody raised his hand to his helmet as he raised Boil over the comlink. "You have the green light, Boil; engage."

"With pleasure, sir," Boil responded. No sooner were those words said when a pair of rockets soared through the air from the ridge, impacting on the two defense turrets. The explosions sent a hail of shrapnel everywhere, and the soldiers manning the turrets were killed instantly. Almost immediately, the remaining troopers turned their attention to the ridge where Boil and the scouts were, forcing the stormtroopers to duck their heads as the turians opened fire.

"Weapons free!" Cody ordered. The commander and his squad swiftly emerged from the rocks and began firing their blasters at the turian soldiers. Three of them went down before the rest began scrambling for cover. Cody pushed forward, laying down suppressing fire with his rifle as he moved to another piece of cover, killing another turian as he did so. As the hostiles' return fire forced him to duck underneath the barricade he was using as cover, one of the enemy troopers threw a grenade in the direction of his squad. The grenade detonated, sending three stormtroopers flying.

As Cody was watching this, he felt a pair of gloved alien hands grab his upper arms. Before he had a chance to react, he was violently pulled over the barricade and shoved onto the ground. As he recovered from the shock, Cody was faced with the sight of an armored turian trooper looking down on him, pinning the commander's arms to the ground with one arm and a knee. The turian raised his other arm and his omni-tool activated, the projection of hard light forming into the shape of a blade. Just before the alien was able to end Cody's life, a blaster bolt struck the back of his head, killing him instantly and causing him to fall over.

_Thank you Boil_, Cody thought to himself as he pushed the turian off of him. As he straightened up, he noticed several of the other troopers turning to fire on him. Thinking fast, Cody grabbed the assault rifle strapped to the dead turian's back and fired back at the nearest enemy. To his disappointment, Cody was treated to the sight of blue energy appearing around the soldier as his kinetic barriers blocked the bullets. Cody cursed as the return fire from the hostiles forced him to take cover again by a nearby crate. As he did so, one of the stormtroopers on the ridge fired his rocket launcher once again, killing four of the turians that were firing on Cody seconds before.

"Keep pushing forward!" Cody ordered, leaning out of cover and firing at the turians with the assault rifle he'd acquired, managing to kill one of them whose shields were weakened from the rocket explosion. The rest of his squad moved forward near his position while laying down suppressing fire on the remaining six hostiles. As the stormtroopers moved in, one of the turians rose out of cover for a split second and did something that greatly surprised them. Very briefly, an aura of blue energy appeared around the trooper, making him look as though he was surrounded by a faint blue mist. Before any of the squad could react, the turian thrust his arm forward, sending a blue ball of energy right into the middle of the stormtroopers. The sphere of energy seemed to bend the space around it, and looked like a miniature black hole. Almost immediately, four of the stormtroopers near the sphere of energy were lifted off of their feet, dangling helplessly in the air around it.

"Let 'em have it!" the trooper yelled. The turian soldiers immediately emerged from cover and opened fire on the stormtroopers floating around in mid-air. All four of them were riddled with bullets, unable to resist. With over half his men dead, Cody had had enough of the turians' games. Leaning out from his cover, he pulled a thermal detonator out from his belt before throwing it at the remaining troopers. As soon as it landed, one of the troopers yelled "grenade!" before they all scattered. One of the turians right next to the explosive was unable to escape, dying as pieces of shrapnel tore through his body. The other turians scrambled to get to cover as the stormtroopers once again resumed firing, though one of them was killed by a sniper bolt from one of the scouts on the ridge.

"Mop up the last of them!" Cody ordered, moving from his cover towards a spot where one of the last enemy troopers was taking cover. The turian peeked his head out and was about to open fire on the commander before Cody quickly pulled out his blaster pistol and killed him with a well-placed headshot. Two other turians occupying the same piece of cover rose up and were about to open fire on Cody, but another rocket from one of the scouts on the ridge quickly killed both of them. _Just one more to go, _Cody thought to himself. "We've got one more left, men! Find the scaly fierfek!"

As it turned out, Cody's orders wouldn't be hard to follow. Immediately after he spoke, a blurry figure whooshed past his field of vision. He turned his head to see the last of the turians flying through the air, his armor apparently housing a pair of jet boots. Moving at high speed, the trooper rammed right into one of the few remaining stormtroopers, knocking him backward and causing him to smash into a rock. The turian turned around and was about to repeat the same feat when Cody and the rest of the squad opened fire on the lone figure, who used his jet boots to dodge into cover.

Cody and the other stormtrooper still standing near him quickly moved forward to where the turian was hiding. As they moved closer, the trooper rose from his cover and once again activated his jet boots. Before Cody and his squadmate could fire, the turian rushed forward again, slamming into Cody's compatriot and causing him to fall onto his back on the dirt. At this point Cody was extremely annoyed with this turian; he knew he had to act quickly or else the flying trooper would simply go back into cover, and then Cody would be on the receiving end of his next attack. In a daring move, the commander ran forward and jumped onto the turian's back. The trooper was momentarily stunned by his opponent's action, then quickly responded by furiously trying to shake Cody off. When Cody wouldn't budge, the turian began jetpacking left and right in an effort to pry the stormtrooper loose. Holding on for dear life, Cody reached for his pistol, aimed it squarely in the back of the turian's right knee and pulled the trigger. The turian yelled in pain as he bent down on one knee, the other one no longer able to support his weight. Seizing his opportunity, Cody aimed his pistol right at the turian's temple and fired. The alien slumped to the ground dead, and a long silence followed.

"Area clear, commander," Boil stated over the comlink, breaking the silence.

"Good," Cody replied, panting from the level of exertion he was just subjected to. "Go ahead and rappel down here so we can get to the generator."

"Roger that."

Cody took a moment to take a good look at the carnage that surrounded him. All of the turians were dead, of course, but so were seven of his men. The ground was stained with blood, both the blue blood of the turians and the red blood of his comrades, and dead bodies and body parts littered the area. Cody bent his head down and let out a long sigh. Turning around, he saw that one of the stormtroopers that had been knocked down by the turian with jet boots was getting back on his feet. The one that had been smashed into a rock was on his hands and knees, groaning loudly. Cody walked over to the soldier and bent down until he was at eye level.

"How bad is it?" he asked.

"I think I've got a couple of broken ribs," the trooper replied, moaning. "Damn it, that hurt."

"Can you get back on your feet, soldier?"

"I think so. Just give me a second." With that, the injured stormtrooper stood on one of his legs, followed by the other one. Wincing in pain, the white-armored trooper pushed himself off the ground until he was standing straight up.

_At least one of these recruits isn't a coward, _Cody thought, impressed by the trooper's persistence. With a nod, he handed the private back his blaster rifle, which he took with vigor. Cody turned around as Boil and the two scouts approached him.

"We've taken pretty heavy casualties," Boil remarked. "Seven dead, and it looks like the private here is injured."

"Doesn't change our objective," Cody replied. "We came here to take out that defense cannon, and that's what we're gonna do."

"Understood, sir. I just hope we don't come across more resistance underground. Those damn turians are tough as a gundark."

"Did you see when one of them fired that ball of energy at us?" the private asked. "What the hell was that, anyway?"

"I think I read about that in the intel report," Cody answered. "Biotics. Based on what we learned from that captured turian captain, some individuals in this galaxy are able to manipulate dark energy, use it as a weapon in battle. I'm guessing that's what we saw just now."

"So some of these aliens can bend the fabric of space in combat?" Boil asked incredulously. "What, are we fighting Jedi?"

"Don't be ridiculous Boil, they're obviously not that tough. If one of those turians was a Jedi, we'd _all_ be dead."

"How do you figure?" the private asked.

"Let's just say I've got personal experience with Jedi," the commander replied. _I did serve under one, after all…_

"Well, there's no use standing around here talking about freaks controlling dark energy," Boil interrupted. "We've got a cannon to blow up."

"Right," Cody said. "Private, you stay here and keep a lookout. If those scaly fierfeks send reinforcements, radio us immediately."

"Yes sir!" the private acknowledged.

Cody bent down to pick up one of the blaster rifles lying on the ground, slapped in a new energy pack, then turned to address the remainder of his squad. "The rest of you follow me. Let's move out."

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, at this point I believe it's official: I freaking suck balls at updating my crap consistently. At this rate, I'll only have a quarter of this thing done by the time I earn my Master's degree. I seriously need to step up and get the ball rolling again. **

**Hopefully not **_**everybody**_** is angry at me over my laziness. In any event, you can critique this chapter or vent your frustrations by hitting the review button below. Either way, it helps.**


End file.
